


Happier

by niamcuddles



Category: One Direction (Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Summer Camp, Fluff and Smut, M/M, Strangers to Lovers, this was supposed to be a oneshot but here we are
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-08-13
Updated: 2019-09-25
Packaged: 2020-08-20 22:24:35
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 5
Words: 52,302
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20235361
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/niamcuddles/pseuds/niamcuddles
Summary: Niall makes an impulsive decision to work as a counselor at a summer camp and regrets it on an instant. There's not one person he gets along with and he's got no experience with kids either. Doesn't help that he has to share a cabin with his boss.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Title taken from two of my favorite songs with the same name by Ed Sheeran/Marshmallow & Bastille
> 
> (I'm only mentioning this because they are great songs and they kinda go with the fic, a little bit. or maybe not but ive been listening to them while writing and i just thought itd be weird to name the fic that with no context whatsoever, but anyways please enjoy the fic!)

Niall didn’t know what had possessed him to actually take Harry up on his offer, because he should’ve honestly known that it’d end exactly like this. Only now Niall was here, and there was really no way to pretend it would be any better than he had feared, because it was _even worse_. And it had literally only been 10 minutes. 

So that meant there were 5 weeks, 6 days, 23 hours and 50 minutes left to go. Great.

“You must be Niall.” Louis said it as if he didn’t know, as if they had never met in their entire lives or something.

“Yeah… we already met twice.” Niall reminded him, slowly, hesitantly taking the other man’s hand to shake it briefly. He hated all of this already, and it wasn’t him being pessimistic or whatever, he didn’t know how anyone could have NOT hated this. 

“Sorry, yeah. I’m bad with names. And faces.” Then he laughed, as if it was funny and Niall faked a smile that almost hurt a bit. Was it really THAT hard to remember your boyfriend’s best friend since kindergarten? Apparently. Or maybe Harry simply had so many other friends Niall didn’t know about. “I just thought it must be you because clearly you’re not a child but you looked a bit lost there as well and you’re the only newbie we’ve got. C’mon, I’ll show you around.”

“Okay, yeah, thanks.” Maybe Niall should have asked Louis to just show him the shortest way back to the train station instead.

As expected, the other man didn’t offer to help Niall carry his bags, he also didn’t even seem to notice Niall almost dying as he tried to keep up with him. Both with his quick pace and the never-ending stream of words leaving his mouth. Niall didn’t only retain 0 information, he actually felt as if he had forgotten any sense of purpose once they had FINALLY reached the cabin he’d apparently stay in. 

“All the counselors are staying in these ten cabins, not everyone’s here yet but I’ll make sure to introduce you today or tomorrow. We switched things around a bit so you’re actually staying in one of the bigger ones.” For just a second, Niall was almost relieved, but only once he found out that bigger in this case literally still meant tiny. Plus, there were two beds. “You can choose which one you want, your roommate won’t mind.”

“Okay, um… thanks.” Niall was a little nervous not knowing who his roommate would be, but then again, he was a little happy it wasn’t Louis. Like, not that Niall didn’t like him, it would’ve just been weird, to sleep in the same room as Harry’s boyfriend for literally 6 weeks. “So… he’s not here yet?”

“Nope, but he’s actually one of my best mates, you’ll like him, don’t worry.” Why did that not calm Niall down in any way?

“Why aren’t you sharing with him?” Niall tried to make it sound like a joke, but he was afraid it came out differently.

“’cos I’ve got a lot of my mates here.” Was the only answer he got, and somehow Niall felt there was more to it, but Louis didn’t continue, didn’t even allow him to ask another question. “Alright, you can get settled in and everything, there’s really no program for today, everyone’s just arriving. You can basically do whatever you want, if you’ve got any questions come find me. Or call me, if you manage to get any signal.”

“Okay. Thanks again.” So was he just gonna leave now?! “Actually, um… I don’t have that much experience with kids. I mean, like, how do I know what to do or- I mean, what do I do tomorrow morning for example? I’ve never been to a summer camp as a kid myself and-“

“Hey, no worries, you’ll be fine. There’s a schedule for the coming week.” Louis pointed next to the door, and Niall felt relief spreading through him, but only for a literal second. “You’re just helping one of the other counselors for the first few days until you get the hang of it, so you don’t have to know anything yet and you can’t really do anything wrong. Just don’t make the kids cry and call for help if someone gets hurt.”

“Okay… I’ll try my best.” It came out like a joke, but Niall wanted to actually cry right now.

Louis smiled and petted him on the shoulder, making some comment about the nice weather before leaving, whistling on the way out, and Niall just stood there for a moment, honestly thinking of just taking his bags and going back home. God, he truly hated himself sometimes for making such bad decisions.

Then again, it was what had made him say yes to this in the first place. 

_To Harry 10:57  
Don’t tell louis but I kinda already hate it lol_

Niall typed the text message out while sitting on one of the beds, but then ended up deleting it again. Either way, he had no phone signal anyways so whatever. The thing was, he had come here to be distracted and keep himself busy all day, but it seemed he’d have even MORE time for himself than he would have had at home. Great.

Niall didn’t unpack, he just left his things where they were scattered on the floor and next to one of the beds before deciding to take a stroll around the campsite. He also took a picture of the schedule, just for reference. On the first glance, he already noticed that he would literally NEVER join Louis for anything, so either Louis had hated the person Niall had filled in for last minute, or it was personal. OR Niall was overreacting and Louis had nothing to do with this at all.

Then again, it also didn’t seem as if he liked Niall very much, or as if he cared, and once again, Niall questioned how Harry had ended up falling in love with him. 

There were A LOT of kids running around, and also other counselors and other people who probably had some function but no one introduced themselves to Niall or asked what he was doing or who he was. At least he wouldn’t become overworked here like he had feared, but probably bored because he already kinda was. Even more so than during the train ride, where he had come up with the worst scenarios. None of them had come true, but that didn’t mean the situation was any good.

Niall tried to familiarize himself with the camp, but it was hard because of how massive it was. One time some kids asked him something and he had to tell them he had no idea where anything was, so they just looked confused before running off to wherever. So yeah, great experience.

There was also a lake near the camp and no one was there because it was arrival day, but Niall still made sure to find a spot where no one would see him if they decided to come here, and then he just sat on some rocks and basically waited for time to pass. He tried to study the schedule he had taken a picture of and then continued reading the book he had downloaded onto his phone for the train ride despite the fact that it didn’t even scratch the surface of his interest, that’s how desperate he was.

So this was going to be the worst summer ever, that was for sure.

\-----------------------

By the time Niall found himself in the giant cafeteria, it was already so filled and loud that at least no one noticed him yet again. He watched some other counselors to see what they did, where they got food and sat and then just copied them. Except, he sat further away by himself because he only knew Louis but his table was clearly full and he also didn’t see Niall. Plus, Niall liked to pretend that he enjoyed his privacy.

And it worked, for like, five minutes.

“Do you mind if I sit here?” Upon looking up, Niall saw a stranger, probably his age, and he answered embarrassingly fast, hating himself for being relieved.

“No, not at all.” He tried to smile, but the other man just ignored him anyways and sat opposite him, a little to the left though, so they wouldn’t directly stare at each other. 

And then, right before Niall was about to speak up and ask a stupid question, the stranger took out a book and literally read it on the table while eating. So yeah, that already answered the question Niall had never gotten to ask. At least that meant he wasn’t the only one who didn’t really speak to anyone, so somehow that calmed him slightly. But not really.

Eventually, after Niall had tried not to for 10 minutes, he did just speak up, not being able to just sit in silence any longer. Or at least, silence from their table, because it surely wasn’t quiet around them.

“Are you- have you done this before?” Niall asked, because somehow he was hoping this guy was also new, but judging by how relaxed he was, probably not.

“Huh?” The stranger took a moment to actually look up from his book, but then he nodded slowly and Niall’s hopes were crushed. “Yeah, I’ve been here last summer also.”

“So you enjoy it?” Just to keep the conversation going really, obviously he kinda had to enjoy it if he kept coming back, right?

“Sure, yeah.” He shrugged, as if he had no actual opinion on it and there were a billion questions Niall wanted to ask, but he couldn’t really think them through because he had to be quick before this guy would start reading his book again. So basically, he just started blabbering.

“I’m a bit nervous, like, I’ve not got a lot of experience with kids. And I don’t know anyone, just, um, Louis. But not that well either, so… I don’t even know who I’m sharing a cabin with yet.” To be fair, Niall could’ve probably found out had he not been so antisocial today. He had 6 more weeks to be social though, so like… whatever.

“Hmmm… I can’t help you out there either I’m afraid, it’s different every year. But it’s not me ‘cos I already know my roommate.” Great, not encouraging at all. “They probably put you in with someone who’s been here a lot. But since you don’t know anyone but Louis… you probably don’t care.”

“I guess.” True, why would Niall care? He just wanted the person to be somewhat nice, that was really all. But he couldn’t say that to this guy, could he? “I’m sure everyone is nice.”

So then this other guy just blinked at him before he started laughing and Niall kinda felt like crying. “Not really, but most of them are alright. You’re doing well if you know Louis because he’s friends with everyone and he’s got a lot of say, so just make sure to mention him a lot if anyone’s getting on your nerves.”

“Okay, uh, thanks for the advice.” And to his horror, Niall then noticed that the other guy was already finished with his plate, even though he had been reading at the same time, so Niall panicked yet again. “I’m Niall, by the way.”

“Zayn.” Was all he said before grabbing his plate, throwing something like a forced smile at Niall as he got up, probably feeling pity for him as he stopped for a second before walking off. “See you around.”

“Yeah, sure.” Niall answered quickly, not saying anything else though because Zayn had literally already left, leaving Niall feeling quite awkward yet again. Well… at least he had tried.

\------------------------

_Harry 18:32  
are you still alive?_

Niall was actually surprised that he must have gotten signal at some point, and he still had one while walking back to his cabin also, so he made sure to make use of that as he answered his friend. This time, he immediately hit send after typing out his thoughts, even though he immediately regretted it.

_To Harry 19:55  
Sadly. Don’t know if Im gonna stay all 6 weeks. And I don’t think louis likes me very much_

It was the truth, and at least now Niall had told someone, even though he received no answer and then it was too late anyways because the signal broke off yet again when he reached the cabin he was staying in. Honestly, Niall should’ve expected it, but he was still surprised to find the second bed also taken, though whoever he was sharing with wasn’t there and also, clearly was very much more into organization than Niall.

Because there was no phone signal and Niall didn’t have any friends here, he kinda had nothing better to do than to change his clothes, lie in bed and read. He also tried to clean his stuff up a bit, but it mainly consisted of him stuffing everything into his bags, just in case he’d decide to leave, then at least he could be out of here in no time.

Niall was alone for at least an hour, fighting the urges to find out more about his roommate but knowing damn well that going through that person’s stuff would’ve been the worst idea. And also rude as hell, so Niall just kept reading, until almost the last page, kinda terrified of what he was going to do in like a week from now. 

When the door opened, Niall flinched terribly, almost dropping his phone onto his face as he scrambled to sit up more straight. Out of anything Niall would have expected his roommate to look like, it surely wasn’t this.

“Oh- Hi, sorry. Did I wake you?” The stranger actually looked as if he was sorry, but then Niall shook his head quickly, kinda not knowing what to say. Okay, maybe, just _maybe_, he’d think twice about going home. Then again, just because this guy was kinda super hot didn’t mean he was nice or that he would be a pleasant roommate for the next six weeks and Niall was probably just desperate for any kind of human interaction at this point. “I’m Liam. You’re Niall, right?”

“Yeah, right, um. Nice to meet you.” Niall quickly got up to go and shake Liam’s hand, and the other boy actually smiled a real smile at him. “I, uh, hope it’s okay I took that bed, we can also switch or-“

“I really don’t mind.” He looked as if he was telling the truth, and he truly seemed like he was an alright person, and Niall was hopeful until the very next sentence out of Liam’s mouth. “What have you been up to all day?”

“Ummm… just walked around, and like, tried not to get lost and… and then I did get lost, but it was fine, and… yeah.” Yeah, that was about it, also Niall thought about mentioning Zayn, just to name drop, as if that would have somehow been impressive or whatever. 

“Huh.” Was all Liam made, suddenly starting to go through his stuff so Niall sat back on his bed, unsure of whether the conversation was over now or not. Seriously, what was with all these people here? “So Louis didn’t really introduce you to anyone?”

“Well, not really.” Okay, one second, why did Liam almost sound upset? “But it’s totally fine, I’ll get to know everyone and-“

“Actually, it’s not fine, he was supposed to make sure you settle in alright today. I’m gonna talk to him tomorrow.” Wait, no.

“You really don’t have to, there’s no need, I didn’t even care, like, I don’t mind being alone.” Okay, Niall was only making it worse, wasn’t he?

“It’s not really about that. It was his job to do it, and I told him three times last week.” Liam was talking as if he was the boss here or something, and at first Niall thought it was a bit over dramatic, but then it started to slowly dawn on him. 

“So you… you kinda, like… you’re the boss or so?” Was there even one?

Liam seemed genuinely confused by that question, he actually stopped what he had been doing just to look at Niall, as if he thought Niall might have been joking or something, and when he answered, he did it really slowly. “I own the camp.”

“I- what?” What? “So you- wait. Are you joking?”

“I’m really not.” Wow, this was probably the most embarrassing moment of Niall’s entire life, and there had been a LOT. “I sent you an email after Louis told me about you. We even talked on the phone.”

“I… “ Well, Niall HAD talked to someone on the phone, and answered that email, but he had kinda assumed that it had been someone who worked for some organization or whatever. It was probably best to be honest from this point on. “I didn’t do any research.”

“I can tell.” Liam said it in a way that made Niall unsure of whether he had been joking or not. So wait… he was literally sharing a room with his boss?! And he had also had an instant crush on him so this was only getting better and better, wasn’t it? “Are you okay?”

“Yeah, I’m fine.” Niall might have gotten a bit pale, but that was all. “Please don’t talk to Louis about today. He’s my best friend’s boyfriend and-“

“I’ve got to. It’s got nothing to do with you. Sorry.” So he didn’t care about Niall being lonely, just about Louis not doing his job? Nice. “Anyways, you’re with me tomorrow anyways, we’ll get up at 5.”

“I- sorry, I thought I heard you say _five_, what did y-“

“I did say 5. Is that a problem?” Why was he suddenly becoming so unfriendly? … well, maybe because he was literally paying Niall for all of this and yet Niall hadn’t even remembered his name from both their emails and phone conversation, had made no effort whatsoever today to be social or help anyone and had literally just asked Liam if he was joking about owning the camp. Not the best first impression he had ever made on a boss, but sadly also not the worst.

“No, not at all.” Niall quickly lied before deciding to let the conversation die off by pretending to be searching for something in his bags also.

When they were both lying in bed a short while later, with the lights already turned off, he was almost even afraid to quickly type another message on his phone, afraid Liam was going to comment on him not immediately going to sleep considering they’d have to be up at the crack of fucking dawn.

_To Harry 21:47  
Can you maybe look up train times for me? My internet connection is a bit… nonexistent._

\--------------------------

Niall had thought getting up at 5 in the morning would be hard, but he hadn’t expected it could’ve been even worse than in his wildest dreams. Which he had had none of that night because it felt as if though Liam had already turned on the lights to wake him 5 seconds after Niall had managed to fall asleep.

And then the worst news ever – they were going to go on a jog, around the lake, and honestly, Niall was afraid to even ask what the purpose of any of this was, or if he had done something wrong last night and Liam was punishing him for it. Well, apart from the fact that Niall was clearly only here because he needed some money and something to do and didn’t give two shits about the camp or the kids here or who Liam was.

Funnily enough, Niall was almost a little bit glad that he at least had someone to keep him company.

“What are you doing?” Liam asked as Niall slowed to a stop, his side hurting like shit and he had to actually take a few deep breaths before he could answer.

“Um, we finished the round?” They had, with many, many troubles, but Niall had refused to walk. He hadn’t wanted to give Liam the satisfaction. Although at this point, Niall kinda wondered if maybe he was making this in a bigger deal than it was and Liam just wanted someone to jog with, he had actually been rather friendly this morning. Before they had been forced to stop talking or Niall’s lunges would’ve literally combusted.

“We’re doing 2 more.” The other boy told him, as if it was OBVIOUS, as if Niall was an idiot for having thought he’d get to eat breakfast now. Truth be told, he did feel like an idiot now.

“Oh.” Was all he said, trying not to cry. “Okay.”

“Are you alright?” Liam asked after a moment, pulling up an eyebrow and Niall almost wanted to shake his head, but then he nodded instead and picked up his pace, jogging past Liam because he had slowed to a stop also. Obviously Liam was faster than him, but for that tiniest second, Niall wanted to feel the triumph. 

So they did two more laps, and Niall did have to walk a few times because he physically wasn’t able to jog anymore, but at least Liam slowed down to wait for him, so that was actually kinda nice of him. Then again, he had thrown Niall out of bed at 5 in the morning to do cardio and not given him a choice so it was the least he could’ve done.

“Don’t you feel so much better now?” He asked after they were FINALLY walking back to the cabin, the camp still really quiet with no one else really awake.

“I wasn’t feeling bad before.” Just tired, and now Niall felt even MORE tired. “Do you do this every morning?”

“Most mornings, yeah.” Well, explained why he was ripped. “But more when I’m here in the summer.”

“You’re here every summer?” Niall asked without thinking, kinda already wanting to punch himself in the face right after though.

“I-“

“Right, yeah, sorry, I forgot.” But if he owned the camp though… “Can’t you employ someone to do your job here for you?”

“Sure. But I wanna be here.” He said it in a way that made Niall feel really dumb yet again, so he just took it like that, not saying anything else because it probably wouldn’t have ended well anyways. 

Liam let Niall use the shower first and Niall tried not to stare after Liam was done, but he ended up staring a little bit anyways. It was still early, but Liam announced he was going to get breakfast, so Niall tagged along without asking, and it didn’t feel as if it bothered the other man, so whatever. Harry still hadn’t texted back, probably because it was only like 7 in the morning though.

On the way there, _everyone_ greeted Liam, like obviously all the other counselors, but also a lot of the kids, and Niall started to feel weird walking next to him. On one hand he felt like he was back in school being a teacher’s pet, on the other hand he also felt like everyone was pitying him for clearly not knowing anybody else and having to pretend to be Liam’s friend. Really, he couldn’t have won in this scenario.

The thing was, as soon as they were inside and had gotten food and Liam had given Niall a rundown of the schedule today while lining up, he went to go and sit with some other people, and the table looked pretty full and Niall thought about following. But then he chickened out, and went to sit by himself yet again. As far as he could tell, Liam also hadn’t waited for him or checked if he had followed, so he probably hadn’t wanted Niall to come along anyways.

At least Harry had texted back by then, even if not the most pleasant answer.

_Harry 7:24  
I already texted louis, he promised hed hang out with you before he left & im sure he likes you. Hang in there!_

So no train times, Harry had probably thought Niall had just been joking around but he had actually been dead serious. Sure, he was getting paid to be here and everything, but less than he would’ve gotten just getting some other job at home that he hadn’t wanted because he had been afraid it would’ve given him too much time to think. So now he had too much time to think anyways. 

Niall took his time eating, pretending to be reading on his phone, wishing the time would’ve passed by a bit more quickly. He knew when he had to be where because Liam had told him before, but Niall had long lost sight of him by the time he was slowly walking back to his cabin to try and kill the last half an hour. 

“Hey, Niall, wait up.” It almost made Niall flinch to hear his name come out of anyone’s mouth here, but upon turning and seeing who it was, he truly wished no one would’ve talked to him all day instead. 

“Hi.” Niall tried, not really slowing down once Louis had caught up to him. He definitely did not look like he wanted to have small talk or be nice.

“Yeah, hi.” He rolled his eyes at that before actually stepping in front of Niall, forcing him to stop walking and properly look at him. “Can I ask why you had to talk shit about me with both Harry AND Liam within one day of being here?”

“I didn’t talk shit about you.” Whatever he had said had been the truth, and yeah, Niall was probably being a bit sensitive, but like… “I didn’t even mention any of this to Harry and how was I supposed to know Liam owns the camp?”

“You TALKED to him on the ph-“

“I didn’t know that was him, okay? Anyways, I didn’t say anything about you. I told Liam not to talk to you and Harry must’ve just assumed things. I didn’t do anything.” Honestly, Niall kinda felt like crying, he was tired and exhausted from that forced morning jog and now the only person here who he knew was already upset with him. “Liam said you were supposed to introduce me to people and-“

“I mean, I’m not your babysitter, am I? You were just hiding wherever yesterday, I was looking for you multiple times.” Well, about that… “I got the feeling you don’t actually wanna be here and want to be left alone.”

“I’m not the one who is complaining, it was Liam who-“

“Liam who did what?” Oh great.

Niall felt his heart speeding up when Liam suddenly came to join them from behind, his face undoubtedly turning red like a tomato as he quickly shut his mouth, hoping he’d just disappear in the ground or something. 

“Um, uh… nothing, I just… I just talked to Louis about yesterday.” Niall somehow brought out when Liam kept looking at him with a raised eyebrow and the other man sighed before looking at Louis, who seemed more than just unimpressed by Liam’s presence.

“Lou, can you please not let it out on Niall? I told you to take care of him yesterday and you didn’t.” Liam was talking calmly, and Niall wondered how these two could actually be friends. 

“I did, he just disappeared, I told you.” This was just clearly getting Louis more upset, although Niall had a feeling this was more about the fact that Harry had gotten involved and not about Liam. “I don’t think he even wants to be here.”

“You’re the one who suggested h-“

“Yeah, but clearly he regrets it and talks shit about me to my boyfriend and you, so sorry if I’m not exactly thrilled right now.” Jesus Christ. 

“I didn’t talk shit to anyone.” Niall repeated himself, not sure whether he was annoyed or feeling bad right now, a mixture of both probably.

“Good for you, I’ve still got a fight with Harry now because _I_ got you this job that you clearly don’t even want and didn’t prepare for, so-“

“Alright, that’s enough, we’re all adults and supposed to be role models to these kids. So get over it, both of you. No one is going home because otherwise we’ll have a huge schedule problem and Louis, your relationship problems aren’t mine or Niall’s fault. And Niall, just for future reference, it’d be wise to not arrive to a new job with the kinda attitude you’ve had since yesterday.” Liam put a quick end to their argument and Niall didn’t actually know who he was more annoyed with at this point, like, it really was a head to head race right now.

“Whatever, I have to work, bye.” So Louis just left them standing, walking away without another look at Niall, who kinda really had to use the bathroom, but he never got the chance to use one anymore.

“He’ll come around. C’mon, we shouldn’t be late.” Liam didn’t even wait for Niall to respond or say anything about what had just happened, he just expected him to follow him, so that’s what Niall did, hoping that this day would be a little more eventful than yesterday so that he could forget about all this bullshit.

If he wanted to go home then Liam wouldn’t be able to stop him, he couldn’t FORCE Niall to work here, could he? 

\------------------------

The day did go by faster than Niall would’ve thought, but still not quick enough. He was with Liam all day long, and he had already expected things to get exhausting, but not THIS exhausting. Watching kids AND doing sport activities with them while Liam looked like he never even got out of breath was truly Niall’s worst nightmare. 

It would’ve been nice had Harry followed up with those train times today, but Niall basically had no signal all day and when it was getting dark he had literally stopped caring. 

“Oh, hi. Niall, right?” Niall was more than surprised that Zayn remembered him, that he actually didn’t look like he wanted to yell at him or boss him around like everyone else here seemed to love to do.

“Hi.” Niall tried to smile back for a second after nodding. He had skipped dinner tonight because he had just wanted some quiet time, so he was sitting on the stairs leading up to his cabin, not having expected anybody to stop and talk to him. 

“Are you alright?” Zayn asked after a second of studying Niall’s face and the boy shrugged, not really knowing what to say. He also wasn’t sure if he wanted any company right now, but he didn’t say anything when Zayn sat next to him. “The first week is supposed to be tough, I think.”

“That’s not so motivating.” Niall wasn’t even sure if he’d last a whole week at this point.

“Sorry.” The other boy apologized, not actually looking that sorry though. “Liam’s usually tough on the newbies, it’s nothing personal.”

“He’s _insane_.” Tough didn’t even barely cut it. Also, as much as Niall had just wanted to be alone, he suddenly felt like ranting to this almost stranger. “He made me get up at 5 to run around that damn lake and the activities he does with these kids, I mean, is he training them for like, a zombie apocalypse or something? What’s the purpose of this stupid camp anyways? And he kept yelling at me in front of the kids and bossed me around. And of course Louis had to come watch just so he could feel good about me feeling like shit, just because his boyfriend happens to be my best friend and how is it my fault they’re fighting? I should’ve stayed home.”

“I’m sure you could talk to Liam if you’re not feeling that great. He probably didn’t even realize he was bossing you around, he just wants you to get used to the schedule and everything.” Now that was even LESS comforting.

“I don’t know if I wanna get used to the schedule.” Truly, all Niall wanted to do right now was go home, just pack his stuff and go. Then again, he had kinda signed a contract so that would’ve been slightly problematic, but maybe still better than staying for SIX bloody weeks. “Sorry for whining, I don’t even know you.”

“It’s alright, you know, this isn’t for everyone. Not everyone’s an outdoor person and not everyone’s good with kids. Just like with every job, there’s gonna be people who love it and some who hate it, but I still think you should just talk to Liam. I’m sure he won’t want you to feel unc-“

“Or maybe you should just go home, and save me the trouble of having to show you everything just so you can decide to go after that. As _insane_ as I am, I’d understand if you’d wanna leave this _stupid_ camp. I mean, fuck a contract, right? Clearly it’s everyone else’s fault but yours that you didn’t inform yourself beforehand.” Literally, Liam had come out of NOWHERE and Niall’s jaw just dropped open when he walked down the stairs in between them, apparently having been inside their cabin the entire time.

For a second, neither Niall nor Zayn spoke a word, they just watched Liam walking away, not even turning around one single time, and when Niall finally turned his head to look at Zayn, he was met with the most pitiful glance ever that literally made him wanna die.

“Fuck… “ Was all Niall could say before burying his face in his hands, Zayn awkwardly petting his shoulder not really making things any better. 

Needless to say, Zayn didn’t wanna spend any more time with Niall after that fiasco, he did stay for a bit longer, trying to cheer Niall up before excusing himself with some clearly made up story. So now EVERYONE hated Niall in this camp, most of all the bloody owner and his best friend and Niall couldn’t even call Harry or anybody else because there was no phone signal, AGAIN. Hell, he couldn’t have even WALKED to the train station because it was too far away, and he also couldn’t call a taxi. 

Basically, he was doomed to be trapped with his own mind, the one thing he had been trying to escape from.

\------------------------

“Honestly, just send him home. Just fire him.” Louis was being over dramatic as usual, but just this one time, Liam actually considered his slightly emotional outburst. “He doesn’t fit in here. He said it himself, he’s got ZERO experience with kids. And clearly he’s also not a very active person.”

“You’re the one who suggested him.” Liam reminded his friend, watching Louis pacing up and down the small room while Liam watched him from his bed. Louis’ roommate wasn’t here or Liam would have not come to openly talk to Louis about what had happened, he didn’t want this whole situation with this Niall kid to become camp gossip. 

“You’re the one who hired him.” That made Liam roll his eyes, because Louis KNEW that he had been desperate to find someone who could jump in for that other person that had cancelled literally last minute. “I don’t see how he can be Harry’s best friend.”

“Is this about Niall or is it actually about you and Harry fighting?” Liam had never met Harry before, nor had he met Niall though they all actually lived very closed at home apparently. Liam hadn’t had time to meet up with Niall before all this, so they had just talked on the phone, and very briefly as well because it’s not like people had been lining up to take the free spot. Niall had literally been the only option.

“Where’s the difference? And Niall talked shit about you too just a few minutes ago.” True, and Liam was definitely upset by what Niall had told Zayn before, but after telling Louis about it and the older man literally going nuts over it, seemingly having forgotten about the fact that he had been pissed at Liam also, Liam could feel himself becoming calmer again. He had a hard time being mad at anyone really. “Fire him.”

“We need him though, no one can fill his spot, we’d have to scratch a ton of activities.” And they’d have tons of kids unsupervised as well.

“You’d have to scratch them anyways because he sucks a-“

“Alright, stop. You’re mad your boyfriend is taking Niall’s side, I get it. And yeah, Niall said some rude stuff a few minutes ago, but it was a long day. And thanks to you he doesn’t know anyone but us and now all this happened on the second day already.” It wasn’t actually meant to come out as harsh, but it kinda did and Louis stopped dead on, looking well ready to start yet another fight with Liam. God, this was a mess. “Forget I said that. Just- you know what? Just stay out of Niall’s way. I won’t fire him, but I can’t stop him anyways if he decides to leave.”

“So you’re leaving it up to chance? Liam, that’s literally insane, someone needs to watch these kids and-“

“He’s 23, I think he can watch over them and do some activities with them even if you don’t like him. It’s not like he’s here on his own, someone else will always be close by.” Then again… “If you think he’s so unfit why did you suggest him? Just because he’s Harry’s best friend?”

“Uh, yeah? I don’t even know him.” Great. “I met him once. Or twice, maybe, no idea, we didn’t really talk, there were always other people. Harry wanted us three to hang out a lot of times but somehow Niall never had time. Seems kinda sketchy when I think about it now.”

“And you couldn’t have told me any of that before I sent him the contract?” Seriously? Liam was just shaking his head at Louis at this point, the other man simply shrugging.

“He’s Harry’s best friend, Harry told me he needs something to do over the summer and I thought, wow, this is perfect. Should I have also requested a criminal record or something?” Louis rolled his eyes before sitting on his roommate’s bed, sighing after checking his phone and Liam didn’t need to ask why. 

“The signal here sucks, I’m sure Harry will text you back by tomorrow.” Hopefully. 

“Who knows what else Niall has told him by now. Maybe he’s in love with him or something, maybe he wants to break me and Harry up because he’s jealous and-“

“Lou, can you please get it together? If Niall was trying to break you up he would’ve done it a lot sooner, and not do it here when Harry’s literally hours away. Like, he would’ve used the chance that YOU are away and not actually gone with you, don’t you think?” Liam had to admit though that something about all of this was weird. “… do we know why Niall actually needed something to do over the summer?”

“Harry didn’t really say a lot, he just randomly mentioned it. I don’t think there’s anything to it and I also don’t really care.” Great, but Liam did. “Didn’t you interview him over the phone? I mean, what exactly did you talk to him about if he didn’t even know who you were and you don’t know anything about him either?”

“It was really brief, I already knew I’d say yes even before I called him.” It’s not like Liam had had a choice. “It is what it is now, we’re all here, we’ll have to somehow figure it out. If he upsets you that much just stay away from him.”

“And what about you? He called you insane and bossy and he said the camp sucks and he’d rather be home, I mean… he couldn’t have gotten any more rude?” True, but Liam also had to take into account that Niall was probably frustrated and feeling a bit like the odd one out. Didn’t mean he didn’t expect an apology though.

“You worry about your problems with him, I worry about mine. Just don’t say anything about him to anyone else, I’ll talk to Zayn tomorrow as well. I don’t want this to turn into a huge deal and then have the kids notice anything.” It had happened before, like the second year or something when two counselors had had… a few romantic encounters and had been caught by a bunch of kids and Liam had had a lot of explaining to do to quite a few parents.

“So you just wanna ignore it and keep on sleeping a few meters away from him?” Louis said it as if Niall had murdered someone and Liam really needed to end this conversation before his friend would get even more into it. 

“We’re adults, we’re not in high school. And I’m literally his boss. We’ll figure it out somehow.” Unless Niall decided to leave, which didn’t seem so unlikely to Liam if he was being honest. Who knew if he would still even be there once Liam got back. Then again… it was getting late and Niall would’ve been dumb to try and WALK to that train station. “You should try to get along with him also, if he’s Harry’s best friend… you know. You won’t be able to forever avoid him.”

Louis just rolled his eyes as reaction to that, and then Liam left a few minutes later, still a bit upset about what he had heard Niall say to Zayn, but he was trying hard to get over it. If Niall apologized, then Liam would just let it go, if he didn’t, he’d still treat him normally obviously, but he’d definitely think twice about being extra friendly to him if it was completely one-sided.

\-----------------------------

Niall pretended to be asleep when Liam came back, from wherever he had gone to, he didn’t care enough to find out. While he had been gone, Niall had thought like 50 times about leaving, but then finally realized that he actually couldn’t, at least not in the middle of the night.

The next day, Niall felt a bit better, although he didn’t feel like talking to Liam or Louis or really anyone. Plus, Liam was gone in the morning anyways, probably to jog, and Niall decided to sit alone for breakfast yet again, because who would he have sat with considering also Zayn was avoiding him now? Exactly.

Liam wasn’t mean to Niall or anything when Niall met up with him to shadow him again for the day, he was actually completely normal, as if last night hadn’t even happened. Niall felt like apologizing quite a few times, but whenever he actually thought about it, some kid came up to ask Liam stuff and then Niall thought about going home again and forgetting all these people. 

In the end, he just didn’t say or do any of these things. Not that day, and also not the next two days. Niall also texted Harry that everything was fine, that none of it had been Louis’ fault, but because of the barely working signal, they couldn’t really talk a lot to each other anyways. Which basically meant that Niall ended up talking to no one at all. 

One week was almost over though, so maybe, just MAYBE, Niall would survive this, and then he’d go back home and just try to forget about it all.

\----------------------------

“This is boring, I wanna do something else.” One of kids complained, yet again, after Niall had tried to make them excited about looking for some strange plants in the forest, something he himself didn’t wanna do either. 

It was his first day of being trusted to do stuff alone with a group of like 10 kids, and Niall was pretty sure Liam had switched things around to some activity no one could get hurt by.

“Not everything in life is fun, and don’t you think plants are cool? If we didn’t have plants we’d all die.” Right, well maybe not the best thing to tell kids, but they were like 10 years old, they just rolled their eyes at Niall anyways.

“I don’t mind the plants being here, I just don’t wanna _look_ for them.” Fair enough. “Can’t we do something else? Everyone else is playing games and doing sports stuff.”

“It’s so hot, you’d hate doing sports today, trust me.” Niall lied, frantically trying to come up with something else to motivate these kids. “Look, this flower right here-“

“Why are you reading it from a book?” A little girl ase+ked from the back and Niall couldn’t even be mad when he saw her genuinely confused face. “I thought you’re teaching us. My teachers never read from a book at school.”

“He doesn’t even know anything, he’s new.” Someone else whispered, making Niall suppress a sigh. 

“I wanna go swim in the lake!” A boy suddenly threw in and almost immediately EVERYONE agreed with him and despite Niall’s (very poor) attempts to calm them all down, he failed dramatically. So he just shut up, kinda grateful that the camp was so far away that at least none of the other counselors could see him fail. 

Niall just watched them all discussing their plans to go swim in the lake for a few moments, not even feeling guilty anymore about not stopping them after a while, until one of the boys came up to him who seemingly didn’t wanna go swim in the lake either, half whispering so only Niall would hear him.

“Do you want me to talk to my uncle about the others?” He asked Niall, confusing him even more, because what would his UNLCE help Niall right now? “I tried to tell them to be nice, but they didn’t listen.”

“Uh, thanks for that, I… I don’t know if your uncle could help us, but thanks for the offer.” At least one sweet kid. Then again, Niall couldn’t really be the judge of that because he would have rather swam in the lake as well. These kids’ summer holidays were being wasted looking for plants, so who could have blamed them for getting bored?

“Why not? He told me to tell him if you needed any help today.” Wait… 

“Ummm… who is your uncle?” Please, dear god, please, let it not be-

“My uncle Liam?” The boy seemed confused that Niall didn’t know that and Niall wanted to disappear. Had Liam purposely put his NEPHEW in Niall’s group to spy on him or something? 

“Right. Yeah. Totally. Um… but you know what? I think I’ll be fine.” Niall lied quickly, trying to put up a smile for the boy, _Alfie_, read his name tag. It’d probably be best to at least remember this one name. 

The boy blinked at Niall before turning his head to look at everyone else still doing whatever they wanted before looking back at Niall, probably judging him internally and opening his mouth to say something, but Niall was faster.

“Hey, listen up everyone.” He half called out, making half the kids flinch but at least they were quiet from there on out. “I can’t change that you’re in my group today and that we can’t do something more fun. But actually I don’t wanna look for these plants either, so if you all behave nicely then maybe we could do something else and I can see if you can swim in the lake later. But not now, okay?”

Almost immediately the kids mostly all cheered, with the exception of Liam’s nephew, who seemed a bit vary about the situation, but he didn’t say anything. Niall wasn’t sure how he’d manage to convince Liam to let them swim in the lake later on, but they’d eventually be allowed to, right? What was the purpose of the camp being here if no one could go in the lake?

There wasn’t much to do, because they were in the middle of the forest, but some kids asked Niall if they could sit down and chat, so he immediately agreed of course because it was the most harmless activity ever, and before he even knew it, he was suddenly being bombarded with random questions about his life, and stories from the kids’ lives. Some of them wanted to collect stones or make flower crowns or whatever and they did stay close by, so no one got lost or hurt. Honestly, it was probably the best few hours Niall had spent in this camp so far.

“What are we gonna do if someone asks us about today?” One of the kids asked Niall when they were walking back to the campsite, everyone having found it _hilarious_ that Niall had allowed them all to copy information about these plants from the book to fill out their text sheets. They were learning while writing it down as well, right? And there were pictures in the book so they had gotten some visuals also, just no real life ones.

“I think w-“

“Let’s just say it was a lot of fun and that we all love plants. And let’s not say anything about the book.” A girl suggested before looking at Niall after interrupting him. “I don’t want you to get in trouble, I like you.”

“I- thank you. I like you guys too.” It was true, they were actually all really sweet kids. They had been really eager to find out stuff about Niall and tell him things as well, also Liam’s nephew, but Niall was still slightly worried about whether he’d go tell Liam what had happened today. Right now it didn’t seem like it, but who knew? “I promise I will see what I can do about the lake, okay?”

He’d at least try, Niall had told himself he had to now that the kids had been so good, even if it kinda made him nervous to even just imagine asking Liam about it.

When they got back to the camp, the kids all ran off after saying goodbye to Niall because they all had some free time before their afternoon schedule and though Niall had thought he’d be exhausted after watching kids all morning, he was actually starting to become bored again rather quickly.

“Umm, Liam?” Niall forced himself to speak up the second he kinda randomly saw Liam, clearly busy with something, but he was alone and when else would Niall have spoken up if not now?

“Hmm? What’s up?” Liam didn’t seem bothered, he just needed a moment to actually look at Niall and give him his full attention. That was the thing about him, he was always so attentive whenever anyone spoke to him, staring at Niall with these brown eyes and god- just because they weren’t exactly friends didn’t mean Niall couldn’t think he was good looking, right? “How’d it go today so far?”

“Um, alright, I think.” Had his nephew told him anything? But it had literally been 15 minutes or so. “I wanted to ask you something though, because, uh, the kids have asked me quite a lot about swimming in the lake, because it’s so hot and… and I told them I’d ask. I don’t know if there’s a rule or something.”

“There are a few days we let them go in, or if it gets way too hot. It’d be too dangerous to let them go in all the time when we’re not there watching out that no one drowns.” Well, good thing Niall had asked or he’d be involved in a lawsuit soon. “Don’t let them try to convince you somehow, most of the kids have been here before, they know the rules.”

“Okay, I’ll try my best. Thanks.” And then Niall was about to walk off again, not wanting to bother Liam any longer, but he only got to take like two steps.

“Wait.” Liam sounded a bit as if he had decided last second to stop Niall, hesitating for a moment when Niall looked at him in question. “I was gonna ask you something as well.”

“Okay.” Niall hoped his voice wasn’t shaking as he pretended to be calm. Truth be told, he was kinda afraid every night when they were alone that Liam would say something about what had happened, but ever since then they hadn’t had any real conversations not related to work, besides the usual hello and goodnight. 

“You know you don’t have to sit by yourself at every meal, right?” Well, obviously Niall knew that, but it made him flush, the way Liam said it as if he didn’t know the reason behind it. 

“I know.” The other boy answered, clearing his throat a bit and scratching his head in an attempt to get over his embarrassment. “I, um… “

Liam didn’t interrupt sadly, he waited for Niall to embarrass himself even further, not finding the right words and in the end just blurting out with whatever, completely unrelated to the conversation topic.

“I wanted to say sorry, um- for what I said to Zayn and… yeah. Sorry. It was rude. Also sorry I had no idea who you were and- anyways, ummm. Sorry.” Niall quickly closed his mouth after that because there was no way anything smarter than that would’ve come out. Which was pretty pathetic thinking about it. 

“Let’s just forget about it. I’m sorry too that your first day was so shit and that you kinda had no time to prepare yourself really, so it’s not your fault.” Well, it kinda was but Niall appreciated Liam being nice right now. “That’s actually why I put you in a cabin with me, to keep an eye on you. But I genuinely thought you and Louis were friends before all this, I would’ve made sure to show you around myself if I had known.”

“Well… “ Niall shrugged a bit to that. He hadn’t talked to Louis just once since the second day, so like… “It’s whatever, really. It’s mostly my own fault, so… “

“But it’s my responsibility to make sure everyone’s okay.” He said it as if he truly meant it, as if he was genuinely sorry, and Niall dared to look up and into Liam’s eyes for just a moment, immediately regretting it when his breath hitched a bit. “So I’m also sorry for making you run around that lake, I kinda just wanted company.”

“It wasn’t actually that bad. I’d do it again.” Niall heard himself say, mentally slapping himself in the face right after. God, what was wrong with him?!

“Are you sure?” Liam asked with his eyebrow pulled up, a grin tugging on his lips but Niall just nodded anyways because he was just so relieved that Liam didn’t seem to be mad at him still. Well, he would be again once his nephew told him about today, but not this very second. “You’re always welcome to join, I’ve gotten no one else to come out of their free will so far. Can’t imagine why.”

“Yeah, me neither.” Niall joked out of impulse, but it did make Liam laugh and Niall felt a bit stupid for being proud of that. “I should, uh, probably go.”

“You can also stay and help me. Unless you got something important to do.” There was no way Liam actually believed Niall had anything to do at all, Niall was certain that the other boy knew that Niall was just trying not to get onto his nerves, so he was actually even more thankful for that offer. 

“Not really. What do you need help with?” Niall agreed embarrassingly fast, but Liam didn’t comment it, he simply started listing all the things that needed to get done and even though Niall kinda didn’t feel like doing any of them, he was determined to not let it show. Helping Liam was a whole lot more fun than sitting around by himself after all. 

\----------------------

“Can I ask you something?” Niall finally got the courage to speak up after helping Liam collect sticks in the forest for the last 20 minutes. Apparently they’d need it for some activity, Niall wasn’t really questioning it though because he was more busy staring at Liam’s muscles showing through his tight shirt when he moved his arms. 

“Sure.” Liam didn’t sound bothered, so that was good. Actually, he seemed to be in really high spirits for some reason, as if Niall having come to talk to him had brightened his day or something.

“How come you own this camp?” Probably something Niall could have read on the damn website had he ever bothered to actually open it before coming. “I mean, do you actually _own_ it or just run it?”

“I do actually own it.” The other man laughed, not stopping to look at Niall while talking but instead continuing to collect sticks. “I always wanted to go on summer camps when I was a kid, but I only got to go once because my family didn’t have a lot of money.”

“So now you get to go every summer.” Niall said his thoughts out loud, although Liam hadn’t really answered his question in any way. 

“Exactly. But it’s not really about me, I mean, I love being outside and all that, my dad always took me hiking when I was younger and we camped a lot. I just like that a lot of kids get to come here whose families don’t have a lot of money, not like me when I was a child.” Okay, wait… so not only was he good looking, he was also kind and caring? 

“So… “ Niall started, briefly considering whether it’d be rude to continue, but then he did it anyways. “So how can you afford any of this?”

“The camp was already there, I used to work here as a counselor a few years in a row before the guy who owned it wanted to retire, so he kinda let me run it for him. He passed away sadly, and I thought the camp would be sold or something, but turned out he actually gave it to me in his will because he had no family left.” Right, that was really depressing but also sounded like something that only happened in a movie if Niall was being honest. It also STILL hadn’t answered his question.

“That’s crazy.” Truly, but Niall was just wasting time, not sure if Liam even wanted to answer his question. “So if the parents don’t have to pay a lot for their kids to be here… do you like… pay things out of your pocket, or- or sorry if that’s like, private.”

“It’s not. I struggled a lot with that in the beginning and we’ve kinda run on donations, but yeah, I finished uni and got a job and my blog is also going really well, so… it’s actually going better than I ever imagined.” He also kinda sounded like it, as if he still couldn’t believe it, and Niall couldn’t believe it either but he was kinda more concerned about other things.

“You have a blog?” He definitely did not look like the kinda person to be sitting in front of a laptop at like, any time of the day really. “So you’re like… an influencer or something?”

“Not really.” Liam laughed at that, as if the thought was strange to him. Was there anything this guy couldn’t do, honestly? “I just write blog posts, apparently some people enjoy that. And I do work during the year, so… and the camp isn’t _free_, it’s just not as expensive as other summer camps.”

“Right, okay… “ Okay, so basically Liam was… an actual angel? “I really didn’t expect any of that.”

“What did you expect?” This time, Liam did turn to look at Niall, genuinely curious as it seemed so the other boy quickly shrugged, bending down to pick up some pretend sticks. 

“I don’t know… not that you’re the owner.” Clearly, they had already established Niall’s disinterest towards this camp, which probably led Liam to his next thought.

“Can I ask something too?” He had waited a moment to ask, both of them collecting sticks again though Niall felt like they already had enough at this point, but he just nodded anyways, not even checking whether Liam was looking at him or not. “How come you wanted this job?”

Of course he wanted to know. Niall had expected to be asked this question much sooner, during their brief phone interview, but Liam had seemed desperate, and he hadn’t asked a lot of questions. Also, it seemed as if Harry hadn’t really told Louis anything either, which had surprised Niall but he also really appreciated it at the same time. 

“It’s, um… complicated.” Niall started, actually not sure if he wanted to talk about it right now. He kinda had to, because Liam was his boss and everything, but then again, it was also private, so… “I, uh… I’m on summer break, from uni, so, I thought I could, like, get a job so I won’t get bored.”

“Right. Doesn’t sound so complicated.” Liam wasn’t buying it, probably because it was half a lie and mostly because Niall clearly had not applied to any other job. Well, he would have, had this offer not come along out of nowhere and hadn’t it already been summer. “What do you study?”

“I-“

“Liam!” And before Niall could kinda come up with another lie they were being interrupted at the right exact time. Sadly by Louis though, whose face immediately got a bit harder upon seeing Niall as he half jogged over, only sparing him a glance though. 

“What’s up, why are you yelling?” Truly.

“To get your attention?” Louis rolled his eyes, and Niall had a feeling he was annoyed that Niall and Liam were clearly somehow getting along, in a professional way, so he pretended to keep on collecting sticks, as if Louis wasn’t even there. “I wanted to ask you something and I know you will wanna say no, but I _promise_ I will make up for it.”

Liam waited for a moment, and when he asked, he sounded annoyed as far as Niall could tell without looking. “You wanna skip the bonfire tonight?”

“Please. It’s the only time I can call Harry before he leaves and then I don’t know what’s gonna happen with time difference and everything.” Right, Harry was going on vacation tomorrow, with his family, Niall had almost forgotten about that.

“Fine, alright. But you gotta find someone who jumps in for you.” A bonfire didn’t sound so bad, but Niall kept quiet for now. 

“… Niall could fill in for me.” Louis suggested after a moment of hesitation, and just for the split of a second, Niall wanted to say no, just because. 

“You gotta ask him if he wants to.” Liam answered, making Louis have conversation with Niall and Niall felt a bit relieved that Liam seemed to be on his side, that he wasn’t just deciding for him as if he wasn’t even here.

So Niall still ignored Louis, and waited to be asked because apparently that’s how childish they were, and it clearly took Louis a moment to actually convince himself to do it. “Niall, do you wanna take my spot at the bonfire tonight?”

“Okay, but what do I have to do?” Niall looked at Liam when he asked, but the other man was ignoring him, clearly wanting to force Niall and Louis to talk to each other instead.

“Just help Liam watch the kids, maybe tell some scary story or something. You get to roast marshmallows.” Louis added, as if that was making it more appealing. Honestly though, it did sound kinda fun. 

“Okay, I can do that.” Niall agreed, more for Harry’s sake than for Louis’ though. And not at all because Liam would be there. Obviously. 

“Great, thanks.” Louis’ face got a lot happier after that, and he was clearly about to just leave, but then Liam cleared his throat and Niall pretended he hadn’t seen the look he shared with Louis before the other man sighed a bit, looking at Niall once more. “Can we forget what happened? I’m sorry I didn’t really try to introduce you on the first day and left you on your own.”

“It’s alright, I’ve already forgotten about it.” Niall shrugged, thinking about apologizing as well for a moment but then he didn’t. He hadn’t done anything to Louis, he also hadn’t talked shit about him to Harry or anything like that, and it seemed the other man also didn’t expect an apology because he just nodded before leaving them alone once more. “… do I really have to tell scary stories to the kids? I don’t really know any and I’m not sure if I’m good at it either.”

“Don’t worry, you just have to be there and watch the kids with me, it’s only like 20 of them but it gets a bit exhausting alone. Especially because there’s open fire and stuff.” So basically, Liam was scared someone would die otherwise? “I mean, if you’ve got any ideas or whatever then you’re welcome to suggest them, there’s not a fixed plan for it or anything.”

Niall nodded, at first pretty sure that he had zero ideas, but stupid as he was, he blurted out with the first thing that came to his mind, kinda not even expecting Liam to care. “I can play guitar.”

Liam did the exact opposite of not caring, he actually stopped for a moment before he suddenly started grinning and Niall realized he had just dug his own grave. “Seriously? We’ve never had anyone who can actually play guitar so congratz, you just got a promotion.”

So was that… good?

\--------------------

“So you’re firing me from every bonfire?” Louis sounded shocked, as if he had enjoyed the bonfires or as if he wasn’t allowed to still join.

“It’s not an assigned job, Lou, you can still come. But Niall plays guitar.” Liam didn’t really know yet how well, but he was about to find out. “Weren’t you gonna call your boyfriend or something?”

“I _was_ but then you fired me.” Right. “The kids love my stories, you’re making the wrong choice.”

“They can never sleep after your stories, they’re too explicit and-“

“And who says Niall’s guitar playing isn’t gonna scare the kids also?” Now this wasn’t worth an answer, so Liam just rolled his eyes, about to say goodbye to Louis because their ways would part in a few meters anyways. Thanks to Niall helping a few hours ago with the firewood and everything, Liam didn’t have to hurry like he usually did after dinner whenever there was a bonfire planned. “Or maybe _you_ should be fired and me and Niall should run the bonfires on our own.”

“Suddenly you like him?” They had made up today, but it had looked a bit halfhearted to Liam. 

“I don’t mind him. And I could ask you the same.” Fair enough.

“Niall came and apologized to me and he stayed to help, so yeah. I think he’s actually a good guy, we just all got off on the wrong foot.” Or something like that at least, Liam just wasn’t the type of person to dwell on disagreements. “If I were you it’d be in my interest to like him because of Harry.”

“I’m trying.” At least a start. “Don’t pressure me.”

“I think you should go and call your boyfriend now, I gotta work.” Liam joked, shoving Louis when he tried to push him, laughing as the other man walked off without another word, clearly annoyed.

Liam hadn’t seen Niall for a few hours after they had collected these sticks and briefly discussed the bonfire because it had been time for the afternoon activities, so when Liam found the other boy, he was a little surprised to see him still spending time with some of the kids. One of them Liam’s nephew.

“Hi, guys.” Liam greeted upon coming closer, no one having paid any attention to him, they seemed to have all been more busy listening to Niall playing on the guitar Liam had given him before so he could warm up a bit.

“Uncle Liam!” Alfie came running to hug Liam around the middle, seemingly very excited about something.

“Hi buddy, what’s u-“

“Can I be in Niall’s group again tomorrow, _please_? I know we’re not really allowed to switch, but I really want to, he’s so cool.” He interrupted Liam, surprising him a little because he hadn’t expected the kids to immediately like Niall so much, considering he had been scared about not having any experience. Maybe he was a natural.

“We’ll see about that, okay?” Liam said it quietly, so only his nephew would hear him, but the others were busy with Niall anyways. “I’m afraid I have to steal Niall from you guys for today.”

There was a lot of whining when Liam spoke up more loudly and it almost made him laugh. Niall stopped playing on his guitar, seemingly not having noticed Liam coming closer until now and it almost looked as if he was blushing or something.

Liam was highly amused as he watched the kids saying goodbye to Niall, and him having to promise like 3 times that he would see if they could be in his group again soon before he was finally ready to leave. Who would’ve thought things could turn around this much, in just a few days?

“They’re literally in love with you.” Liam chuckled as they walked off together, Niall clearly a bit embarrassed by what had happened although there really was no need to. 

“I bet they act like that with everyone.” Niall shrugged it off, but Liam caught the brief smile on his lips.

“They really don’t, trust me.” There were some counselors who really weren’t that great with the kids, not in a way that they lost them or whatever, just a bit too strict maybe, not that likeable. Stupid to think that Liam had been afraid of how Niall would manage. “See, and you thought you needed experience to do this.”

“I’m kinda surprised by myself.” The other boy admitted after a moment before lifting the guitar a bit. “Also that I still know how to play a few songs on here, I kinda… I kinda told you without thinking it through.”

“Well, there’s no pressure at all, okay? And the kids seemed to really like you playing right now, so I bet everyone will be super excited. My stories are a bit recycled as well.” So it would’ve possibly gotten boring anyways, which was also why Liam had been really happy about Niall’s guitar skills. But also a bit because actually, Niall seemed to be more than just alright.

“Better recycled than having them all be scared.” True, definitely something that would’ve happened had Louis been here instead.

The reason they only had a few kids at a time for the bonfire was simply because it would have gotten too dangerous otherwise, even with more people there to watch, so they just split them into groups like usually and did it a couple days in a row. Liam still kinda took the leading role so Niall wouldn’t be overwhelmed or whatever, but again, he seemed to just make the kids all like him at an instant and Liam started to think that maybe this other person backing out last minute had actually been a blessing in disguise.

Liam told two stories before one of the kids asked why Niall had brought a guitar, so then at first Niall was clearly holding back a bit, but just a couple minutes later, everyone was singing along and enjoying themselves, even forgetting about their marshmallows, which was definitely a first. Liam watched Niall through the flames of the bonfire, kinda staring a bit as he fake sang along, one of the younger kids on his lap getting all the lyrics wrong, but Liam could barely focus on anything but the other man anyways.

The fact that Niall seemed to be having so much fun, that he was so animated and the kids absolutely adored him, it really made Liam wonder why Niall had been worried about coming here. But more, why he had even needed this job in the first place, because somehow, Liam wasn’t buying the story Niall had told him earlier today. And he had never gotten around to telling Liam what he was studying at uni either.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> first of all, i wanna apologize to everyone for being gone for so long, it definitely wasnt planned!
> 
> i started this fic at the beginning of july, thinking it would be a quick oneshot just for fun, but then my summer job got intense and it still is and im at 20K with this "oneshot" so ive decided id split it up and not pressure myself to finish it all beforehand. there might be more than 4 parts to this, im not sure yet! im officially incapable of writing something short, thats for sure now lmao!
> 
> i hope you enjoyed this first chapter/or first part whatever, i thought itd go well since its summer and all (and i know in a lot of countries uni/school has already started again so im sorry about that)! anyways, i missed talking to you guys and i miss having time to write and not working 11 hour shifts at the cinema (((: but its all good!
> 
> the second chapter is almost done, i will upload it within the coming week and i hope to upload the last 2 chapters (or how ever many there are to come) at a reasonable schedule! im afraid i wont be able to stick to my usual friday updates because i work at crazy hours, but i wont leave you guys hanging, promise! also, ive never been to a summer camp in my whole life and my entire knowledge comes from that lindsey lohan movie where she plays twins, just so you all know haha
> 
> i love you guys & i hope you had/are having a good summer <3


	2. Chapter 2

Niall was only a little afraid that Liam would find out about him kinda letting the kids do whatever they wanted, but it was supposed to be fun for them, right? Also, Liam didn’t at all seem as if he would have gotten mad as long as no one got hurt, so Niall tried not to worry too much.

He was still a bit wary about the whole situation, not sure if things would actually get better now that he had apologized to Liam and kinda made up with Louis AND surprisingly wasn’t that terrible with kids either, but Niall definitely felt better after that bonfire. Him and Liam talked quite a bit before going to sleep, just random things really, nothing too deep, and Niall kinda regretted saying yes when Liam asked whether he wanted to come jogging with him in the morning, but it turned out to not be so bad at all.

So Niall went again two more mornings in a row, somewhat falling into a routine at this point, getting to know more people working at the camp as well since Liam had waved him over to eat with him. Even Louis was being somewhat normal around Niall now, so all in all, things were definitely looking up. Somewhat at least.

“You’re starting to get faster.” Liam was surely joking when Niall finally arrived after him after their second round around the lake or something, he had stopped counting and he was so out of breath that he could only roll his eyes as he slowed to a stop. “It’s really early still.”

“Because… we… got up… at… 4:30…. “ Niall had to take deep breaths between each word, kinda wanting to sit down on the dirty ground but trying hard to resist the urge. It had still been dark when they had gotten up, but Liam had somehow put it into his head to jog during sunrise and Niall had had to admit it had been nice to look at, but maybe not worth it after all.

“You could’ve slept in.” True, but somehow Niall both hated and enjoyed jogging with Liam at the crack of dawn. Then again, it kinda wasn’t about the jogging but that wasn’t important right now. 

Niall just shrugged, having to lean forward on his thighs to catch his breath some more while Liam was surely amused, but he did pet Niall’s back for a moment, waiting a second before continuing.

“I wanna show you something.” Liam said it in a kinda weird way, but he seemed confident about it when Niall looked up, not quite sure what to think about it. “We don’t have to jog there, unless you desperately want to.”

“I’m good.” Niall rolled his eyes when the other boy chuckled over his own joke. 

So Niall followed Liam, even though his side was hurting, a bit worried about what to expect but also kind of excited when they walked away from the camp, into a direction Niall had never gone. 

“Is this the part where I find out you’re actually not a nice guy running a summer camp for kids but a murderer or something?” Niall laughed, but he also felt slightly weird after they had been walking for like 10 minutes and he was pretty sure he couldn’t have found the way back on his own. 

“Guess you’re just gonna have to wait and see.” Liam wasn’t exactly calming him down with that joke, but he was clearly amused by Niall’s obvious worries. “Do you want me to walk a bit further over there?”

“No, I’m literally lost right now, if I lose you I’m gonna die anyways, so it’s not like it matters.” It kinda made Niall wonder, about what would have happened if one of the kids had run away, but he didn’t wanna jinx it by asking about it.

Liam found his comment very funny, so that was some sort of achievement for Niall, even though he felt pathetic about it.

They were still near the lake, but the trees were getting less and then before Niall knew it, they were kinda walking uphill and there were more bushes and rocks and when he started to _really_ get worried, they had clearly arrived at the place Liam had wanted to show him. And it had definitely been worth it.

“Wow… “ Niall was a bit speechless by the sudden view he was getting over the forest, and the mountains somewhere in the distance, even the lake a little bit. It wasn’t a big hill, but they could see a lot further getting up on a rock that was just big enough for two people. Conveniently enough. “I had no idea that forest is so big, how has no one gotten lost yet in all those years?”

“Tons of people have gotten lost.” Calming. “But we found them all, no worries. Actually, one time I got lost as well and that’s how I found this place up here. So don’t tell anyone or it’s gonna get crowded.”

“Have you not shown anyone else?” That was kinda weird, but Liam shook his head like it was no big deal after drinking from his water bottle, wordlessly handing it over to Niall after. “So you come here when you need a break from the kids?”

“Not really. I just come here after my jogs sometimes, or I just jog up here.” Of course, and he probably wasn’t even getting out of breath running uphill. “I also meditate on that rock once a while, it’s really quiet.”

“You meditate?” Niall kinda wanted to laugh at first, but then he didn’t when he realized how serious Liam had been as he nodded. “What’s that like?”

“What do you mean what that’s like?” Liam laughed, sitting down so Niall did the same, finally getting the break he had needed for quite a while now. “Close your eyes and think about nothing.”

“What, right now?” Okay, that was going a bit too fast for Niall, but Liam had already closed his eyes, not responding, so Niall genuinely tried to do the same and not think about anything. It didn’t really work, not even for a second, but he waited quite a bit before he couldn’t stand it anymore. “I’ve never thought about so many things at once.”

“Shhh.” Was all Liam made, but he was smiling when Niall opened his eyes to look at him for a second, his eyes still closed, his hair damp from jogging and Niall almost had trouble looking away again.

So they sat there in silence for like 5 minutes, but it felt like eternity to Niall, and eventually, he just kept his eyes open and lied back on the rock instead, letting Liam do his meditation or whatever while his thoughts were literally doing the opposite of what he had intended with this exercise. Didn’t help that he was now staring directly at Liam’s back.

“I can literally hear you thinking from over here.” Liam almost made Niall flinch by speaking up so suddenly, quickly letting his eyes fall closed.

“How long do you usually do this?” Niall asked, ignoring whatever the other boy had said.

“A while, it depends.” Probably ages, Niall had no idea how Liam could be so calm and not get bored, but he didn’t ask, didn’t open his eyes. Just lying there was kinda nice because he was tired, even with the edges of the rock bothering him a little bit. “Are you falling asleep?”

“I wish.” Niall half mumbled, not looking up but he knew Liam was lying down next to him, keeping his distance though. 

So they stayed quiet for a moment, Niall actually struggled to stay awake for a few moments, and he wondered whether Liam was again meditating or something, but then he spoke up and Niall kinda wished he wouldn’t have. “What do you study at university?”

“Journalism.” Niall just said it without thinking about it and he didn’t even know why but he could feel himself panicking a little inside, as if Liam could somehow read his thoughts. So before there’d be any more questions, Niall just continued for absolutely no reason other than to get even more nervous. “I got one year left, I’m a bit behind, I started late.”

“But you’re… 23, right? You still got time.” Liam sounded surprisingly optimistic and Niall almost wanted to laugh but he kept it in. Pretty sure Liam was older than him, but he wasn’t sure by how many years.

“Yeah, I guess… but you were probably a lot faster than me. What did you study?” He had said he was already done, right? As far as Niall could remember, he had tried to forget about that conversation. Honestly, he could count himself lucky that Liam hadn’t asked him any of these things during the phone interview because he wouldn’t have been prepared in any way.

“I’m also more than two years older though. I studied psychology.” Oh, perfect, so he WAS probably looking right through Niall and that’s why he had asked. 

“Oh.” Was all Niall said, immediately regretting it though because of how stupid that had been, so he felt as if he was forced to follow it up with something. “That kinda… suits you.”

“You think?” Liam laughed when Niall shrugged and Niall heard him move, but he still refused to open his eyes because the next question threw him off track again. “Do you work during the semester?”

“Umm… occasionally.” Again, not exactly a lie, but also not the truth and Niall did feel bad so he again followed it up with a question as well. “Do you work as a psychologist when it’s not summer? Like, you know, where you talk to people and stuff.”

“You make it sound like that’s weird, but no, I actually work in test development.” The other man chuckled and Niall felt a bit stupid. “Not full time anymore though, I also got my blog going and I’ve got hiking tours sometimes.”

So basically, Liam had his entire life figured out when he was only 2 years older than Niall and Niall had 0 plans, even less than he had just tried to make it seem to the other man. Good thing he hadn’t told the entire truth or he would have felt even worse about it than he already did anyways. 

“Do you ever have time to go on vacation?” Or maybe this right here was his vacation? Who even knew, he seemed to be the kinda person that was just always in a somewhat good mood and finding the positive side in everything.

“This is kinda like vacation to me, but I do have time to go to other places, yeah. Do you?” Good question.

“Sometimes… I don’t, uh, I don’t have a lot of money, so… “ So that was also why Niall was here. 

“So you probably can’t wait to graduate.” Or something like that.

“Yeah… “ Niall forced himself to laugh, but it came out a bit weird so he faked a cough and he was pretty damn sure that Liam was reading him like an open book at this point but was just too nice to keep on questioning Niall or commenting on his obvious lies. Because surely, Niall couldn’t have been that good of an actor. 

There was more silence between them before Liam pointed out the time and Niall groaned, letting himself be pulled to his feet though when Liam stretched his arm out towards him. Niall let go of his hand as quickly as possible, almost making it weird, but he was pretty sure Liam hadn’t even noticed. 

“I’ve got like, a question. Concerning the camp activities.” Niall started as they were walking back, slowly thankfully because he was still exhausted from that early morning jog.

“Yeah?” Liam asked, already sounding amused and Niall cleared his throat, unsure of why he had even decided to speak up in the first place, it’s just… he was a little terrified of Liam finding out about him kinda letting the kids do whatever they wanted.

“So, like… if there are activities like, um, documenting plants and stuff like that and… and all the kids in the group wanna take a break or like, not finish and play instead, I mean… is that, um, allowed, or… ?” Or would Niall get in huge trouble?

“I mean, it is a summer camp and the parents pay for their kids to actually do activities and not just play.” Oh.

“Yeah, uh, totally, yeah, just wanted to make sure.” Niall lied, feeling his face turning hotter because of how serious Liam had sounded all of a sudden so he refused to look at him.

There was a second of silence, and then when Liam spoke up again, the younger man almost got scared. “Why?”

“Um, no reason.” Niall shrugged, rubbing at his eye to hide half his face, and then he did the terrible mistake of briefly turning his head to look at Liam. 

“Do you wanna tell me something?” He asked, all serious and whatnot, no sign of a smile on his face and this time, Niall really had to swallow hard.

“Uh, no?” He tried, faking a nervous laugh and almost stumbling over something on the ground.

Liam just pulled up an eyebrow and Niall turned his head away, already preparing himself to be yelled at because he had been stupid enough to kinda rat himself out, but then he flinched instead when Liam burst out in laughter out of nowhere. “You are such a liar!”

“I’m not.” Niall defended himself automatically, feeling the tightness in his chest loosening though, relief spreading through him.

“You know Alfie is my nephew, right? And he’s almost always in your groups because he likes you so much?” Well… 

“The kids had fun though.” There was no point in denying it now, Liam obviously already knew and Niall should’ve known he’d ask his nephew about him. “We did do some activities.”

“Hey, I was just joking before, as long as no one gets hurt and they have fun, you can do whatever you want with them. Did you think I’d get mad?” Liam was still chuckling and Niall rolled his eyes, pretending to be upset when Liam jokingly elbowed him softly. 

“I wasn’t sure, I’m not like, trying to do… _illegal_ things here, I just feel some activities are boring as hell for the kids.” They were, Liam couldn’t deny it and he also didn’t try because he was much more busy laughing over something else.

“Illegal? It’s a summer camp for children, Niall.” Okay, okay, maybe Niall had been slightly dramatic. “Just don’t lose anybody and don’t let anyone get hurt and it’s all good, okay? And you can always come talk to me if something does happen, I won’t get mad, I know things just go wrong sometimes.”

“Okay… thank you. I’m sorry I kinda, uh, lied.” Many times before, not just this one, but Liam didn’t have to know that.

“Well, you’re one of the most liked camp counselors so I’m not gonna give you a strike. Not this time.” Liam winked at Niall when he said it though, so the younger man knew he was just joking, but his heart still sped up a little anyways. “I might though if you tell anyone about the place I showed you.”

“I couldn’t show them even if I wanted to, I’d get lost a hundred times trying to go there by myself, so no worries.” Though it was the truth, it did make Liam laugh and Niall felt himself smiling just watching him, feeling a little proud over it as well. It’s not that he was desperately trying to make Liam like him, or make him laugh or whatever, but Liam was one of those people who were just so easy going that it was hard NOT wanting them to like you. 

And despite the fact that Niall was trying hard not to let it show, he definitely did feel a bit too happy that Liam had decided to show _him_ his secret spot.

\----------------------

“Can I sit here?” Niall was more than surprised when he saw Louis standing next to him, sitting down before he had even reacted to the question. They hadn’t really talked a whole lot, or spent time with each other, so obviously Niall was immediately getting suspicious. 

“Sure.” Seeing as Louis was already sitting down, it was kinda unnecessary for Niall to say it, but he still did, kinda automatically before going back to watching the kids playing by the lake. It had been so hot today that Liam had decided they could make it a swimming and water activities day, so they needed everyone watching the kids so no one would like, drown or something.

Louis didn’t say anything else for a while, so that was a bit uncomfortable, but Niall was distracted anyways, watching Liam walk around in just swimming trunks. Though he was way too good looking to not be staring a bit, Niall still felt a bit guilty, and surprised when Louis spoke up out of nowhere.

“So now that your first week is over, how do you like it?” Okay, they were going down the awkward small talk route, but that was okay.

“A lot more than I thought.” That was the truth, Niall actually found himself looking forward to going jogging with Liam again tomorrow morning, because even after just a few days, it kinda felt like it was their thing because no one else did it. But Niall wasn’t going to say that. 

“That’s good. The kids seem to like you a lot.” Niall just nodded along to that, not knowing what else to say, his eyes yet again getting stuck on Liam, so he felt a bit caught when Louis continued. “You and Liam seem to get along really well, I always see you together.”

“I mean… we share a cabin.” And Niall spent most of his free time hanging around Liam, but that was beside the point. 

“But Liam’s shared a lot of cabins with newbies and they usually don’t like to be around him so much because he’s the boss and everything.” Made sense, so what did that say about Niall? 

“It’s not like he’s strict or anything.” Niall shrugged, forcing himself to look at the kids instead, pretending to be actually doing his job and watching them.

“Not to you.” Louis laughed, and his words surprised Niall but he decided not to task because he didn’t think Liam was giving him special treatment. He wasn’t… right? “Maybe because you actually went jogging with him again after the first time. I was really surprised when he told me.”

“Why?” Also, why had Liam told him? And why did that somehow bother Niall, as if it was a secret or something?

“I mean, no offence or anything, but you really don’t look like you enjoy working out that much. Not saying I do, especially not with Liam ‘cause he’s living some crazy healthy lifestyle I can’t keep up with.” To be fair, Niall couldn’t even be mad at that because one, it was true, and two, he had no actual answer as to why he went jogging with Liam. Because honestly… he wouldn’t have done it with anybody else. 

“It’s not that bad.” Was all Niall said to that, not really knowing how else to explain it because what if Louis went and told Liam about it? “I’m getting used to it kinda.”

“Well, good for you. And good for Liam, I guess, I always wondered how he’s not getting bored.” Pretty sure there was no way Liam could EVER get bored. 

There was more silence between them, Niall kept watching the kids and sometimes Liam, one time also Zayn, who did actually wave at him when their eyes met. Niall hadn’t really talked to him a lot since what had happened, but it seemed as if maybe he was the only one still even thinking about that. Or maybe not.

“You know… “ Louis suddenly started again, this time sounding a lot less casual, but Niall tried his best to keep calm on the inside because he kinda already felt as if he knew what was going to come. But he was still a bit surprised as well, positively. “I know we already got over what happened and stuff, but I still feel like… like things are a bit weirder between us than they should’ve ever been. Considering you’re Harry’s best friend and everything.”

“Harry’s got a lot of friends I’m not friends with.” Had that been rude? But it was the truth.

“But only one boyfriend.” Fair enough.

“As far as you know.” Niall joked for no reason, the whole situation kinda making him a little brain dead. “Sorry, that was stupid, umm… anyways, you don’t have to like, try to be my friend or something just because of Harry. I don’t think things are weird between us.”

“Well, that’s good, but I do actually feel like we could get along, we just kinda started off on the wrong foot. And Liam likes you too.” So now that last sentence would be the only thing Niall would be able to focus on, great. “We all live pretty close at home.”

“Hm.” What else was there to say about that, Niall had already known that Louis lived only a couple minutes away from him, but he wasn’t sure how to feel about Liam apparently also not being far.

“You don’t sound very excited.” Louis pointed out with a laugh, but Niall briefly looked at him and suddenly he started to feel bad, like, Louis was really trying here and he was being completely passive and unimpressed. But also, Liam had just gotten into the water, so…

“Sorry, the sun is really making me tired. But yeah, maybe we can all hang out when we’re back home or something.” Provided Niall survived the next 5 weeks.

“Harry’s coming to visit for a week, did he not tell you?” Wait…

“He didn’t. When is he coming? Right after he’s back from vacation?” When Louis nodded, Niall felt relief spreading through him kind of, but then suddenly, he also felt himself panic. There was no way in hell his best friend, who knew him inside and out, wouldn’t ask questions about him hanging around Liam so much. Plus, he also didn’t know that Niall hadn’t exactly been honest about a few things.

“Actually, maybe he wanted to surprise you, pretend I didn’t tell you, okay?” Niall doubted that, but he still agreed, a lot more concerned with other things right now. He was excited for Harry to come, he just wasn’t sure how this would play out. “While we’re at it we should also make friends with Zayn, it’s his second summer and I still see him mostly by himself.”

“You can, I already screwed that up. Also I think he really values his alone time.” He didn’t seem like the kinda person who actually wanted to make a ton of friends here, and Niall was trying to save him from being pestered by Louis all day. 

“We’ll see about that.” Was all Louis said, apparently super motivated to be social today because before Niall could even react, he flinched terribly as the other man started shouting without warning. “Hey, Zayn!”

So yeah, Niall’s attempts to save Zayn’s alone time had failed, and Zayn did come over, with a lot of confusion written across his face, but he didn’t seem too annoyed when Louis started a random conversation with him. He was trying his best to include Niall also, and at first it was super weird, but Niall felt himself relax after a while, mostly because it was Louis doing 80% of the talking out of the 3 of them.

But maybe also because he only listened to about 2/3 of whatever was being said. It wasn’t his fault that Liam looked so fucking good when he was dripping wet and playing with kids.

\--------------

“I’m not sure if I think Harry coming here is a good idea.” At some point Liam had to say it, even though he knew it’d upset Louis. But honestly though, it sounded like the worst idea ever. 

“I already told him it’s okay.” Louis sounded surprised, but also really upset and Liam suppressed a sigh, trying not to get too distracted by the conversation because he didn’t want any of the kids getting hurt. He shouldn’t have assigned Louis to help him with this group today, but they rarely ever got a chance to be alone and talk. “I can’t uninvite him. I also don’t want to.”

“I know but you could’ve at least asked my permission first.” Seriously.

“I didn’t think I had to, why do you suddenly gotta play boss?” Great, this was why Liam hated having Louis and a few other friends working here, it was really hard to put his foot down and draw a line between friendship and work. But it needed to be done, and at least Louis had the decency to talk quietly enough so the kids couldn’t hear them argue.

“I’m not playing boss, I-“

“I know, I know. You _are_.” And then Louis rolled his eyes, kinda really ticking Liam off. 

“Lou, can you try to not act like a 5 year old about this?” Apparently not.

“Can you?” Louis shot back, and before Liam could have said anything else or even just thought about something, he got a little surprised. “The only reason you don’t want him to come is because you and I both know it’s actually Niall who will spend most of his time with him.”

“It has nothing to do with Niall.” Liam lied quickly, looking away from his friend though. Maybe if he said it out loud it’d become true. “I don’t want you to be distracted, what if something happens to one of the kids or-“

“Or what if Niall would stop running after you like a puppy?” Great, NOW Liam both wanted to hide his face and yell at Louis. 

“He’s not.” He was, totally, and Liam didn’t mind it. 

Two weeks had passed now, they were still going jogging together every morning, sometimes going up to that place Liam had shown Niall even though he hadn’t been sure it had been a good decision at first. But they really got along and Niall was easy to talk to, he was funny and he was great with the kids and honestly, he was definitely making the camp a better place just by being here. 

Obviously Liam knew that something was off with Niall’s university or his studies or whatever, but he had stopped asking because it was obvious just how uncomfortable Niall had gotten after each question. So Liam focused on lighter topics instead, things that would tell him more about the younger man but not go too deep. Although, their late night talks could definitely get deep once a while.

“He is.” How could Liam have argued with that, honestly?! “Look, I’m sorry I didn’t ask for permission, but we can make a deal.”

“What deal?” Liam didn’t wanna make a deal, he was upset right now and even more so because of how easily Louis was reading him.

“I’ll make sure I have Harry all to myself and you can keep your lap dog.” For a moment, Liam actually wanted to scream, but then Louis just laughed and he took a few deep breaths, trying to calm himself down with very little success. 

“It’s not about Niall. And don’t refer to him as-“

“He’s into guys. I already made sure to check with Harry for you, you’re welcome.” What the hell?

“Can you stop? It’s none of our business who he’s into.” But then again, Liam was a little surprised to hear it, but also… maybe not. And maybe he was also a little bit relieved, for no reason of course. “If you keep this up I’m gonna send you home before Harry even gets here.”

“And who would you replace me with exactly?” Was all Louis gave back, which, sadly, Liam had no answer for, so instead, he pretended as if he had to step in and help one of the kids with something.

So yeah, there was that. Great conversation.

It was a really long day, probably because of how hot it was and everyone was tired and Liam felt exhausted, already looking forward to tomorrow because it was an activity free day. Which obviously didn’t mean they didn’t have to watch the kids, but it’d still be a lot less stressful than usually. 

As it was getting later, Liam kinda expected to run into Niall at least once, and he kinda hated himself for hoping that he would, but then he didn’t anyways. Which was both a disappointment, but also slightly concerning. It’s not that Niall or anyone had to be back with their group at an exact time, however, everyone else was already back as far as Liam could tell as he kept track of everyone, and it was almost dinner time, so he was getting a bit nervous.

“Have you seen Niall?” Liam was at a point where he was stopping other counselors walking past to ask them the same question, but literally all of them said no. So Liam had been forced to try and somehow find his nephew in hopes of getting answers.

“No, I wasn’t in his group today.” Alfie almost said it in an accusing way, just because Liam wasn’t allowing him to spend literally every day with Niall. That was the thing, Niall was so popular with the kids, they were now fighting over who got to spend time with him. “But one of my friends is and I haven’t seen him.”

“Shit.” It kinda slipped out really, but it had been quiet enough for Liam to cover it up with a cough. “Alright, thanks buddy. Don’t forget to clean this mess up in here.”

“What about Niall? What if he got lost?” Liam’s nephew ignored the comment about the cabin being a mess, only adding fuel to the fire. “We should make search parties.”

“I wanna come too!” One of Alfie’s cabin mates yelled from the other side of the room and Liam sighed, at the same time though actually considering it.

“We’re not making search parties, he’s just a bit late, is all. Sort out your stuff before you go eat, alright? All of you.” And then Liam quickly left before he’d be pulled into even more conversation that would only make him worry. But then again, he SHOULD have been worried, it was kinda his job to make sure everyone’s alright.

There was still time until dinner, so Liam tried to keep himself busy until then, he also tried calling Niall but the one time he did get a signal, Niall probably didn’t have one so it was pointless. Fuck, what if he had genuinely gotten lost? With like, 10 kids? It was getting dark and late and Liam suddenly remembered each and every time Niall had mentioned his non existent sense of orientation to him. 

He had even once almost gotten lost jogging around the lake. A goddamn _lake_.

“Something happened, I can feel it.” Liam was close to losing it after he had found Louis to tell him what was going on, and Zayn was also there, both of them looking slightly unimpressed. Probably because they had been on their way to get dinner and Liam had stopped them mid-way like a crazy person. 

“Something is definitely gonna happen if we don’t get going and that is most of the food being gone.” Louis joked, but he stopped himself mid laughter when he realized no one was joining. “We can go look for him after we’ve eaten.”

“Where are we even going to start looking for him?” Seriously, if he had REALLY gotten lost… 

“I don’t know, what do you usually do when someone gets lost?” Good question, because no one had ever really gotten lost for this long, and not with a whole group of kids. 

“Wait for them to come back.” And they always did, within an hour or two, but Niall should’ve literally been back three hours ago and it wasn’t going to help that the sun was setting. “We’ll literally have to call the police or-“

“Okay, okay, calm down. He’s gonna come back, he’s not an idiot. Just relax.” Louis was obviously trying his best here to shut Liam up, putting a hand on his shoulder but it wasn’t helping too much. 

“And what if he doesn’t?” Oh god, Liam needed to stop having these images in his head of everything that could’ve gone wrong.

“Then we will help you look for him.” Zayn quickly stepped in, sounding more serious and also more concerned than Louis, but it still wasn’t enough. “It’s gonna be fine.”

It took more convincing from both of them to get Liam to come eat with them. Not that Liam was actually eating anything, he just sat there watching the others eat, hoping they’d hurry the fuck up while Louis kept throwing glances at him that Liam only knew all too well. He had a right to be worried, he would’ve been worried about anyone not coming back, it wasn’t just because it was Niall. Although… he might not have noticed so soon had it been someone else but that was besides the point here.

“This is pointless, it’s too dark now.” Louis was right, but he quickly back paddled after meeting Liam’s eyes once they had finished eating, a lot sooner than usually because of how much Liam had been getting on his friend’s nerves. Zayn had tagged along again as well although Liam was pretty sure he had just done it because he hadn’t wanted to keep on having to make conversation inside. “But we can try. It’d just suck if one of us gets lost as well.”

“It’d suck even more if something happened to Niall and we didn’t even try to find him.” Seriously, how could everyone else be so unbothered?

“Or to any of the 10 kids.” Zayn threw in, sharing a look with Louis that Liam sadly noticed, turning his cheeks a bit hotter.

“Yeah, of course. That’s what I meant. The kids.” Liam tried his best to get out of this awkward situation, hating himself for being so worked up right now. He usually wasn’t like this, usually he managed to stay calm whenever things went wrong, but somehow that didn’t apply to today.

“Mhm.” Was all Louis made, clearly not believing Liam so the other man was quick to change the topic again.

“We need to get flashlights and-“

“We have phones.” Louis reminded Liam slowly, so he just nodded, trying not to acknowledge his own stupidity from freaking out so much.

“And we need more people. I’m gonna go and see whoever can come and help and who stays behind to watch the rest of the kids. And we have to make a plan on who goes with who, and maybe we should also agree to come back at a certain time so that we won’t get lost as well or maybe-“

“Sounds amazing and all but Niall’s right over there. I’m going to bed.” When Louis interrupted Liam’s ramble, Liam first of all didn’t even realize what he had said, and it took a moment for him to actually look into the right direction and somehow make out Niall and the kids with how dark it had gotten. 

And then Liam just kinda forgot about the fact that the others were watching him as he made his way over to Niall, a bit too fast maybe, but fuck it, Liam had never been so relieved.

“Hi, sorry I took the wrong w-” 

Niall was clearly surprised by the fact that Liam had just come up to hug him with no warning, but the older man barely took notice of it or cared, he simply held onto Niall, just to make sure that it was real, that he wouldn’t have to search the whole damn forest for him or find him badly injured somewhere. Thank fucking god.

“I was so worried.” Liam blurted out, ignoring the kids from Niall’s group, and Louis and Zayn, and literally anything else besides Niall. “I thought something happened. Where the hell were you?”

“I lost track of time and then we kinda took the wrong way back and landed somewhere else, so we had to go back and yeah, took longer than expected.” Niall made it sound like no big deal, but he did hug Liam back, although a lot more loosely than Liam was holding him in return still, actually having to choke back tears right now. From relief though. “I’m sorry you were worried.”

“It’s not your fault.” Liam quickly assured him, feeling a little breathless almost, kinda forgetting to let go of Niall.

“It was so cool, it was like a real adventure!” The kids all seemed to agree on that and it was only then that Liam remembered their presence, or the fact that he should’ve counted them, but luckily, Louis was doing it for him already as it seemed.

“Alright, kids, go and get some food if there’s any left and then off to bed, okay? C’mon, let’s get going, it’s late.” He kinda had to convince them to leave, and Liam awkwardly let go of Niall as the kids all said goodnight to him before running off. The crazy part was that they even THANKED Niall for how much fun they had had. Meanwhile Liam had been here losing his mind, no big deal. “Are you crying, Li?”

“Why would I be crying?” Liam tried to laugh it off when the other three looked at him, avoiding Niall’s eyes at all costs right now. “I’m just glad nothing happened.”

“He was about to put together a whole search party and-“

“Niall, you should probably also get something to eat.” Zayn interrupted Louis, saving Liam from even more embarrassment, for which he was grateful but it’s not like it still mattered at this point. And he was still itching to throw his arms around Niall yet again, just to make sure he was really here.

“I’m not that hungry, actually. I forgot about my lunch so I ate it on the way back.” Niall shrugged and Liam wondered whether he was lying, but he wasn’t going to complain. “I kinda just wanna go to bed, this day felt like an entire week or something.”

“How convenient.” Was all Louis said to that, and Liam wanted to glare at him but he didn’t wanna give him the satisfaction. So instead, he decided to ignore him. “Well anyways, I’ll see you guys tomorrow or something. Goodnight.”

He walked off without waiting for anybody even though they kinda had the same way, and Zayn did the exact same thing a few seconds later, leaving only Niall and Liam standing there like idiots. The thing was, Liam HATED how both Zayn and Louis knew he kinda wanted to be alone with Niall, but he was also kinda grateful for it at the same time.

“That was weird.” Niall commented as they were walking back to their own cabin together and Liam was still struggling to overcome his panic from earlier. He would’ve searched for Niall the whole damn night if he had had to. “Did you really wanna make a search party?”

“I mean… “ Liam started, clearing his throat while pretending to be really busy scanning the campsite. “It’s kinda my responsibility to make sure everyone’s safe. Especially the kids.”

“Right.” The younger man nodded while Liam wanted to internally slap himself for having said that, but now it was out and maybe it was better than having Niall know that he had completely forgotten about the kids just a couple minutes ago. Whatever, they were all safe, right? 

They didn’t talk for a few moments until they had reached the cabin and Niall announced that he needed to use the shower first because he was about to fall asleep standing up. So of course Liam let him, trying to clear his head a bit in the meantime, but it wasn’t really working that well.

As he came out of the bathroom after Niall, he found the younger man lying on his bed eating candy, actually looking rather awake. 

“I thought you weren’t hungry.” Liam commented jokingly as he sat on his own bed, trying not to laugh when Niall simply shrugged while chewing. “Where’d you even get that from?”

“I brought it from home, I’ve got a whole bag full of stuff, I’ve just been hiding it from you because I knew you would’ve told me it’s unhealthy.” Well… he was probably right about that. 

“It is unhealthy.” Liam said, more so to make Niall smile and it worked, if only for a second but Liam still struggled to catch his breath right after. “But I think you deserve it after almost dying in the wilderness.”

“My thoughts exactly.” The younger man answered before eating more of his candy and Liam tried not to stare. Niall seemed completely relaxed and fine and it was actually hard to imagine what had literally just happened before, and how much Liam had overreacted as a consequence. “Do you want some?”

“Wh- no thanks.” Liam answered quickly, realizing he must’ve stared a bit too hard so instead he decided to lie down as well. “I already brushed my teeth.”

There was silence again, which Liam hated, but he also knew where it was coming from and he was kind of at a loss of words really, which wasn’t that usual for him. So just to say something, anything at all, he decided to start with the one thing he actually didn’t really wanna talk about right now.

“Are you excited about Harry coming?” He had to be, Harry was his best friend, right?

“Yeah, I don’t think I’ve ever not seen him in such a long time. Except once maybe, when we were younger.” They hadn’t really talked a lot about Harry, so Liam kinda felt forced to ask.

“Have you really known him since kindergarten?” Louis had said something concerning that, but he had said a LOT about Harry in general, so no one could blame him for not retaining all of that information.

“Yeah, our families were friends before that though, we live really close. And we’ve gone to school together as well.” So maybe Liam did understand Louis’ burst of jealousy a couple days ago, it was obvious that Niall must’ve known Harry ten times better than Louis maybe ever would. 

“And uni?” Liam asked without thinking while staring at the ceiling, watching a moth trying to get closer to the light through the lightbulb.

“Yeah.” Was all Niall said after the tiniest bit of hesitation that Liam could have as well imagined. “I don’t think I’m gonna see a lot of Harry when he gets here though.”

“I don’t want him to distract Louis all day anyways, I won’t allow him to always help him with his group, no worries.” Somehow Liam didn’t like saying that, but he wanted Niall to be able to spend time with his best friend, so like… he was just trying to be nice here.

“Thank you. That’s probably not gonna improve the situation between me and Louis but whatever.” Niall laughed, sitting up to put away the rest of his candy. Or what was left of it anyways.

“I thought you’re getting along now?” At least they were doing a good job at convincing Liam that they were, and neither of them had ever said anything negative about the other anymore.

“We are, but who knows what’s going to happen. And after the camp is over and stuff.” It was only day 15, so a bit soon for Niall to talk about the camp being over, but all of a sudden, as Liam watched him stretch and yawn, he could feel himself overcome with a bit of panic almost. “I’m going to brush my teeth.”

“Okay.” Liam told him absently, watching him walk away, still relieved as hell that Niall was here, that he hadn’t gotten lost, but also slightly afraid of not only his own thoughts and feelings, but also the uncertainty of what was going to happen. 

Niall fell asleep rather quickly after they had turned off the lights, and talked a bit more about tomorrow, the activity free day, and about whether they’d still go on their morning jog or maybe take a break from that as well. Liam stayed awake for another hour, listening to Niall’s breathing while telling himself that there was absolutely no reason to freak out right now. Niall was here and he was safe, everything else would be somehow manageable.

Right?

\---------------------------

“I don’t think you’ve ever looked so happy to see me.” Harry was laughing when Niall hugged him, and to be honest, Niall hadn’t expected that he’d be so happy to see Harry either because of his worries, but they had quickly vanished upon seeing his friend here. 

“I’ve never not seen you for so long. You’ve gotten really tan.” He had been on vacation with his family and he looked relaxed, and excited to be here, and Niall knew it was probably mostly because of Louis but whatever. 

“You haven’t.” The other man joked although it was true. Niall had mostly gotten red, despite Liam reminding him to put on sunscreen along with the kids. “Why’s the camp so empty?”

“Liam only gave me off to show you around, everyone else is doing activities.” And so was Louis, which had upset him quite a bit, but Liam apparently hadn’t cared about that, which Niall had been grateful for, but he also wasn’t so sure how to feel about it. 

Everything between him and Liam was just fine, although Niall felt as if there was something unspoken between them ever since he had gotten back so late a few days ago. The problem was, Niall wasn’t sure if he was imaging it or not, because they hadn’t ever talked about it again. All he knew was that Liam seemed to have really been worried about him considering that tight hug, but had also been quick to point out that he was the boss, that he was responsible for everyone and mostly the kids. So there was that, but also the fact that he suddenly mostly gave Niall things to do around the camp and not too far away.

“Don’t worry, Louis will be back soon enough and then you can totally ignore me for the rest of the day.” Niall joked, knowing that his friend would hear the truth in it though.

“I won’t.” Harry promised, sounding serious for a moment as he threw his arm around Niall’s shoulders. “Forget about Louis right now, I wanna see the camp, this is really cool. Maybe I should’ve taken the job instead of you.”

“I don’t think you’re cut out for it, you’re totally not the nature type of guy.” Niall laughed as Harry rolled his eyes with a smirk, both of them known damn well that Niall was actually describing himself here. After going camping together 3 times as children, they had quickly figured out that neither of them would become obsessed with it, but out of the both of them, Harry was still more likely to do it again.

Because Niall had been here for like 18 days now, he knew his way around pretty well and he had to admit he felt kind of a bit proud of it as he showed Harry everything, a few kids coming up to talk to him because they had already gotten back from their morning activities. It was nice having Harry here, even despite the fact that Niall had somewhat lived himself in and had people to hang out with, he had still missed his best friend as well. 

“… and Louis really made his roommate switch?” Harry asked as they were leaving Louis’ cabin because Harry would obviously stay with him for the week he was here.

“Well, he didn’t really have to ask him to, he wasn’t so keen on sleeping next to the two of you.” Niall explained, remembering that conversation quite well because he had overheard it. He also knew that Liam wasn’t exactly happy over how things had turned out, but he hadn’t talked to Niall about it. 

“Right. Well, I’m not mad over it. I would’ve also shared a cabin with you, but you’re quite happy with your own roommate, huh?” He said it in a way that almost made Niall blush. But only almost. “Louis told me you guys get along quite well.”

“I mean, we are.” Niall just shrugged, not looking at his friend as they were walking down to the lake now that Harry had gotten rid of his stuff. “Have you never met Liam?”

“I think I have, but there were other people and I don’t remember it that well. Louis’ got a lot of friends.” Not very relatable, at least to Niall. “If you like him then I’m not worried though, I trust your judgement.”

“Why?” Niall laughed, thinking it had been a joke, but Harry seemed kinda serious when he answered.

“Because you’re very selective with your friends.” That was true, even though Niall tried to get along with everyone, there were only a few people who he actually got closer with. And somehow, Liam had ended up being one of them. 

“I don’t know if we’re friends.” Niall admitted, because Liam was his boss and sometimes Niall couldn’t help but think that maybe he was annoyed with constantly being around him, but if so then he was pretty damn good at hiding it. “It’s only been like two or three weeks.”

“He’s making you wanna go jogging every single morning.” Harry pointed out, which Niall had never told him about, but it was quite obvious why he knew.

“Does Louis have any other topic to talk about other than me?” Seriously.

“Yeah, but I don’t think you wanna hear about those.” And then Harry laughed as Niall pulled a disgusted face, playfully shoving the other man.

When they reached the lake, they both stopped just to look, and Niall could tell that Harry was impressed with how beautiful everything here was, and he had to admit he was a bit jealous. That Harry got to experience all this in the way he did, that he could take it all in and appreciate it the very first time. Not like Niall had on his first day.

“Seems crazy that someone our age can own all this. And that he’s so passionate about it.” It was true, Niall sometimes forgot about it because it was somehow becoming normal to him, but he did really admire Liam for being the way he was, making all this possible. “Do you still regret that you came?”

“No… the beginning was just a bit difficult. As you know.” Niall shrugged, kicking at a stone and watching it as it dropped into the water, not sure whether to keep on talking. 

“… but?” Harry asked after a moment, knowing Niall way too well, and the other man sighed, not looking up.

“It’s kinda fun here, and I don’t regret that I came at all now that I’m getting used to it and to everyone, it’s just… “ He made some movement with his hand, not wanting to actually finish the sentence, but luckily he didn’t have to.

“You’re worried what’s gonna happen when you come back home.” Harry finished for him, and Niall just gave a nod as he crossed his arms in front of his chest, trying not to think about it. “Niall, it’s going to be fine.”

“Eventually, yeah. But it still sucks right now.” Though Niall tended to forget lately, because he was distracted here, with work, with the kids… with Liam, but now that Harry was here, it was all somehow coming back. “You’ve not told Louis anything, right?”

“No, why would I? It’s none of his business.” Niall was really grateful for that reaction, because he had been a bit afraid of it all coming out. “Have you told Liam?”

“No… why would I tell him?” Niall made it sound as if there was no reason, but they both knew why Harry had asked anyways. Maybe Niall hadn’t been as subtle about liking Liam as he would’ve liked. Maybe. “I kinda, um… I kinda, like- I didn’t tell him the truth. A few times. I’m a bit afraid of his reaction if he ever finds out.”

“It’s none of his business either and I don’t see how he would ever find out.” Harry was right about that yet again, although… “… unless of course you do wanna be friends with him after this is over. Or… something else.”

“What do you mean?” Niall asked, pretending as if he had NO idea what Harry meant and the other man sighed, but he had a smirk on his lips when they looked at each other briefly.

“Okay, I got it, you don’t wanna talk about that. That’s fine. I’m just your best friend and I always tell you immediately whenever I’ve got a crush on someone and I told you the second me and Louis got together. But that’s fine, I’m not hurt or anything.” It was a joke, Harry started laughing the second Niall rolled his eyes after he had pretended to wipe away some pretend tears.

“You’re so dramatic.” But even though Niall wanted to be annoyed, he honestly just wanted to laugh as well, relieved that he had never had to say the actual words to Harry about Liam. 

“That’s why you love me, right?” And then Harry dropped the topic like that, knowing that Niall didn’t wanna talk about it, and despite his initial worries, Niall was more than just happy that Harry was here now.

\------------------------------

Niall did feel bad about not going jogging with Liam, but he was simply too tired to get up the next morning after talking so late with Harry and Louis. The downside to that was that he really didn’t see Liam all day long because he didn’t show up to breakfast or had already eaten by the time Niall got there, so he again just sat with Harry and Louis. 

Louis had very quickly gotten over his annoyance of not having been the one showing Harry around, and he wasn’t at all taking it out on Niall, so that was nice. Also, now that all 3 of them were together, they somehow all got along, which Niall really wouldn’t have expected at all, and he came to feel childish for always having had an excuse to meet Louis before this summer.

Liam had also allowed them to have their group of kids do something together today, which Niall was grateful for but then again… he also kinda wished he could’ve been with Liam instead, maybe apologized again for leaving him to go jogging by himself. Maybe that was stupid though, surely Liam hadn’t minded, right? 

It’s not like HE was the one who had this stupid crush.

“The kids really like you.” Harry sounded impressed for some reason, which made Louis laugh.

“Why do you sound so surprised?” Niall tried to be upset, but honestly, he had really been surprised as well.

“I don’t know, you were worried before coming here as well.” The other man defended himself, which was fair enough.

“Niall’s like the king of the campsite, all the kids wanna be in his group all the time.” Louis threw in, which surprised Niall even MORE, but he decided to take the compliment anyways. “He’s gonna put Liam out of his job.”

“I don’t think I’d want that.” Niall joked, but he also didn’t really wanna laugh even if Louis of course wasn’t being serious. Truth be told, Niall felt guilty now, he didn’t wanna talk about Liam behind his back, even if it wasn’t serious. “You’re really good with the kids as well.”

“But I’ve had practice because I’ve got so many younger siblings.” Right, Niall had already heard Harry say that, although he didn’t know that many details. 

“Why don’t they come here as well?” Liam’s nephew was here as well after all.

“Most of them are too old, and the two that aren’t don’t really like being outside that much. Plus, they never listen to what I’m telling them to do, it would probably end in a disaster.” Louis shrugged and before Niall could say something else, they suddenly had another problem at hand. “Speaking of you being so good with the kids, I’m gonna let you deal with that.”

“With what?” Niall asked, but he already had his answer looking over to see that one of the kids had decided to take advantage of them being distracted to climb on a damn tree. And not exactly a small one either. “Great.”

Because neither Louis nor Harry made any attempts to go over, Niall kinda had to, getting a bit nervous upon coming closer. 

“You know you’re not allowed up there.” He told the little girl whose name he didn’t know because a lot of the kids ripped off their name tags after like 10 minutes. There were lots of other kids standing around watching, laughing and cheering her on, but Niall ignored them. “C’mon, it’s dangerous.”

“It’s not dangerous, I’m a really good climber, look.” And yes, then she attempted to climb even higher and Niall wanted to scream, but he didn’t. 

“I can already see that, but it’s still against the rules and you know that. I’m counting to three and if you’re not coming down then you’re gonna have to help do ALL of the dishes tonight.” It was really the only punishment there was, for small misbehavior like this one, so Niall was relieved when the girl still seemed scared about it. “One… two….-“

“I can’t.” She suddenly realized and Niall would’ve thought she was lying, but there was sheer panic on her face after the first step. “I don’t know where to step, I’m gonna fall.”

“You won’t, I’ll catch you if you do.” Niall promised without thinking, but she refused to take another step anyways, now hugging the tree and looking close to tears. “You’re a good climber, you said it yourself, you don’t have to be scared to-“

“But I can’t! I’m gonna fall, I don’t want to!” Amazing.

Harry and Louis were coming over as well by now, but Niall was more busy trying to figure out this situation while at the same time shushing the few kids that were laughing at the girl and before he got around to tell her to jump and that he’d catch her because she was rather small, the girl had another idea. A pretty terrible one. 

“Please come and g-get me.” So now there were definitely tears flowing and Niall didn’t know what to do, so he didn’t really think it through when he started climbing on that damn tree as well.

Though it had probably been pretty easy for a small child, Niall was definitely struggling, especially because he was a lot heavier than the little girl, and he also wasn’t sure how he’d actually get her down once he got to her.

But he never really had to figure that problem out anyways.

“Ni, I don’t know if that branch is gonna hold.” Harry warned him from the ground, and Niall really wasn’t that high up yet anyways, but right before he was about to answer, his friend’s words must’ve become reality, because the next thing Niall knew was him staring at the sky and stars dancing in front of his eyes before he must’ve blacked out.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> hi guys :)
> 
> thank you for all the comments!! i know the first chapter wasnt super exciting, but im happy a lot of you enjoyed it! thank you to everyone for reading  
and taking the time to leave a comment and/or kudos <3
> 
> i hope you liked this chapter, im getting the feeling that i most likely wont be able to finish this in just 2 more chapters, but im gonna wait until the next update to tell you guys for sure!
> 
> i hope youre gonna have a good week!


	3. Chapter 3

“Is he _dead?!_“

“I have to puke!”

“Is that _blood?!_”

“Okay, kids, can you all step back, please, yeah? I- no, don’t touch his leg!” 

There were even more voices, all of them making Niall’s head hurt like hell although honestly, that pain was probably coming from something else. He was slowly blinking his eyes open, having to squint against the sunlight, for a second forgetting what had happened or where he even was. 

“Ni? Are you okay?” Okay, that was clearly Harry, Niall would’ve known his voice from anywhere really but he kinda still felt too dizzy to answer, so he just groaned.

“He’s clearly not okay, Haz, look at his l-“

“Don’t say that or he’ll freak out.” Harry interrupted, more quietly, but Niall had still heard it anyways and the more awake he became, the more did he also feel the pain and the ache. And then he also remembered what must have happened. “Niall, can you answer me?”

“What… what happened?” Was all Niall brought out, or choked out more like, trying to move a bit, but it was only making things worse. Honestly, he felt as if he was about to fucking die here. 

“You fell, the branch broke. Try not to move so much, okay? Take it easy.” The thing was, though Harry’s voice was calming and whatnot, Niall also knew that his friend was just really good at keeping his cool. 

“Am I… bleeding?” Niall still had trouble keeping his eyes open, but as he tried to lift his head, Harry quickly stopped him. 

“Don’t, just keep on lying down, okay? Lou, can you distract the kids or something?” They were still all talking around them though Niall was trying not to listen because he was already feeling dizzy and confused and fucking terrible and also kinda close to tears at this point. 

“I’ll get someone to watch them.” And then Louis left or something, maybe taking the kids with him, Niall didn’t know and he also didn’t care, he just let his eyes fall closed again and tried to breathe through the ever increasing pain. 

“Ni, I don’t wanna freak you out or anything, but do you think we need to get you to a hospital or something?” Oh god.

“No- I mean, I don’t know. Fuck. How… how bad is it? And… and what about the girl, is she-“

“Louis helped her down, it’s all good. And it doesn’t even look so bad, it’s just-“

“You ripped your leg open.” Louis threw in, already back again as it seemed, and Niall immediately felt panic arising in his chest once more.

“He didn’t _rip_ it open, don’t freak him out.” Now they were arguing over it, and Niall put an arm over his closed eyes, trying to breathe through it, calm himself down. Kinda wasn’t helping that there was pulsing pain each time he filled his lunges.

“He _blacked out_ and he’s bleeding like crazy, he can’t even sit up, I’m just being honest. We need to call somebody, he’s probably got a concussion as well. I don’t wanna be responsible if something is really wrong with him, it’s just in his best interest.” Sounded very logical, but not to Niall right now.

“All I’m saying is maybe you shouldn’t be saying these things to him, he’s already in pain and- Ni, don’t cry, please, it’s really not that bad, okay? You’ll be fine, I promise.” Almost immediately, the very second the first tear dropped, Louis an Harry both shut up, but it wasn’t really helping anymore because it was too late.

“I’m sorry for exaggerating, it’s not even that bad. We should probably still have someone check you out though. Just to be safe.” Louis was clearly lying and forcing himself to say these things, but it didn’t actually matter anymore, because there was really only one thing Niall wanted and he would have never said this out loud in any other situation, but he was in pain and feeling like SHIT, so…

“Can you just get Liam?” Probably wasn’t making it any less pathetic that Niall was crying while saying it, making the other two go quiet for a moment. “Please.”

“I- yeah, ‘course. I’ll get him, I’ll try to hurry, okay?” Louis was obviously surprised by Niall’s wish, but the younger man didn’t pay any attention to that, because at this point he was just busy not blacking out yet again.

\-------------------------

“He did _what?!_” Liam couldn’t believe what he was hearing when Louis came to him, out of breath and not making ANY sense whatsoever. As soon as Liam heard the words ‘Niall’ and ‘got hurt pretty badly’ though, he was completely freaking the hell out.

They did have a medic at the camp with them of course, seeing as they were kinda away from civilization, and Liam kinda wanted to yell at Louis for not immediately getting him, because what the hell? First Niall got lost and had almost killed Liam as a result and now he had to fall out of a tree. A damn tree! Jesus Christ.

“I bet it’s not even that bad. It just looks bad.” Louis was only making it worse as they half jogged back, having gotten the medic guy on the way there, who didn’t exactly look thrilled. Normally all he treated were bug bites and scraped knees, so Liam was a little afraid of his qualifications right now, but he tried to keep it in. 

“Please don’t try to talk it better.” Seriously, and Liam didn’t even care anymore if his friend noticed just how panicked and worried he was over Niall yet again, because it really was whatever at this point. 

Also, Liam knew it was very wrong to think this right now, but for a moment he couldn’t help but be a little petty over the fact that something had happened to Niall just when Liam had allowed him and Louis to share two groups so they could both spend time with Harry. It’s not that Liam was jealous of Harry or anything, he wasn’t like that, it’s just… it had made him wonder whether Niall had only spent so much time with him because he had had no one else really. 

They didn’t have to walk so far to find Niall and Harry, and Liam made sure to send away the few kids that tried to get a closer look as he hurried over. Fuck, Niall’s leg really did look bad, and he couldn’t see his face because the younger man was covering it with his arm, but Liam just knew that he was crying.

The moment Liam saw Niall lying there on the ground, he immediately forgot about everything else except for how fucking worried he was and how sorry he felt for the other boy. And maybe a little bit also how Louis had just told him that Niall had been asking for him.

“Hey, Niall, it’s going to be okay, we’ve got someone to look at your leg, yeah? It’ll all be good.” Liam noticed his own voice getting a lot softer talking to Niall as he got down next to Harry, reaching out automatically to rub his hand over the younger’s arm, trying to soothe him.

“Liam?” Was all Niall asked without making any attempts to open his eyes or move, his voice sounding strained and filled with pain.

“Yeah, I’m here, everything’s fine, I promise. It doesn’t even look so bad, okay?” It did, although Liam couldn’t really be the judge of that, he was just glad they had a medic with them because otherwise he would have completely lost it. “Try to breathe, I know it hurts, but it’ll be just fine, yeah? You’re okay.”

Clearly he wasn’t okay, and the moment the medic touched Niall’s leg made that very apparent. Liam could tell that Niall was trying his very hardest to stay still and stop crying, but it wasn’t working very well at all and the older’s heart was breaking having to watch him go through this. Of course Liam felt responsible, he always felt that way whenever anyone at the camp got hurt, but it was also different with Niall because Liam was just so worried, he actually thought he was going to be sick from it.

“Here, squeeze my hand.” Liam grabbed Niall’s hand without thinking, letting him squeeze as hard as he wanted even though it genuinely hurt, but if it made him feel a little better then Liam wasn’t ever going to mention it. 

It probably went by faster than it felt, probably even longer for Niall, but the news they got weren’t that good either.

“I mean, the blood definitely makes this look worse than it is, I just think because he hit his head pretty hard and actually blacked out, he definitely needs to go to a doctor. I don’t wanna be responsible if there’s something going on, I’m not qualified for this and we’ve got not equipment here to properly check him out.” Kind of a given honestly, but it still wasn’t making Liam feel any better.

“I would’ve had him be checked out somewhere else anyways, can you manage this or do you need me to do it?” Liam didn’t wanna leave, so he was relieved when the medic immediately told him that he would handle everything, get somewhere here to pick Niall up and get him to the nearest hospital, so that Liam could focus on the younger man instead. “It’ll be okay, Ni, it’s just so we’re on the safe side, yeah?”

There was no real answer and Liam shared a very brief look with Harry and Louis before deciding to just not care as he moved, still holding onto Niall’s hand even though there probably wasn’t a need to anymore.

It was a little bit of work and Niall at first wasn’t happy over being moved though Liam was trying to be gentle, but the younger man wasn’t at all complaining when he ended up with his head in Liam’s lap. Just because letting him lie on the hard ground made Liam feel even worse for him of course, no other reason. 

“How bad is it really?” Niall asked after a moment, having moved his arm as he blinked his eyes open, and Liam wasn’t sure if he wanted him to have a look, but he also couldn’t stop him. “I’m gonna throw up.”

“It looks worse than it is, it already stopped bleeding I think.” Or maybe not, but there was dried blood everywhere and everyone was keeping their eyes away from Niall’s leg as much as possible. “You’re gonna be okay. How much does it hurt?”

“A lot.” Was all Niall said, taking a shaky breath that broke Liam’s heart all over again. “Are you… can you go with me?”

Though Niall had closed his eyes again and could’ve addressed anyone out of the three of them, Liam actually never considered this as he simply answered before any of the other two could have. “Of course, I would’ve come either way. Louis can manage everything while I’m gone.”

“I’ll try my best.” Louis joked, and Liam avoided his eyes at every cost right now because he just KNEW what was going through both his and Harry’s head right at this moment. ESPECIALLY when he brushed some hair out of Niall’s forehead with his free hand, but he was just trying to soothe him and make him feel better, that wasn’t a crime, right?

It actually took a while until the medic guy came back, and obviously even longer until anyone would get here to come and pick Niall up and Liam had no idea when they’d even be back, all he knew was that he wouldn’t have ever let Niall go by himself. He would’ve never forgiven himself if it turned out that something was really wrong and he had stayed at the camp. 

Also, maybe Harry should’ve taken his place, seeing as he was actually Niall’s best friend, but Liam purposely didn’t offer. For which he felt kinda bad, but also, it’s not like Niall brought it up either, so… 

While they had to wait, they attempted to clean the blood off of Niall’s skin, but Louis pouring water over the wound and everyone chirping in was clearly just making it worse, so they decided to just let it be until someone else arrived. Liam also made sure to kinda suggest to Harry and Louis that they didn’t need to stay, that he was here anyways, and they eventually got the hint, leaving the two of them alone.

“Liam?” Niall started, quietly, after a few moments of them being alone and around 10 billion thoughts having gone through Liam’s head.

“Yeah?” The older man asked, worried about what was to come. He was just staring down at Niall’s face upside down because the younger’s eyes were closed, having let go of his hand so he could instead rub his shoulder and arm. 

“I’m sorry I didn’t go jogging with you this morning.” Okay, this was not at ALL what Liam had expected.

“Why are you thinking about that now?” It almost made him laugh now, although Liam had had to admit that he had kinda been a little bit upset by it when Niall had told him he’d rather sleep some more. Not upset as in… being mad at Niall or whatever, but more disappointed really, which Liam had really hated because he didn’t wanna be the kinda person that got jealous over things like that, and normally he really wasn’t, which was why it had bothered him so much. 

“I don’t know… I’m just sorry.” Niall still sounded as if he was about to start bawling again, and of course it immediately softened Liam’s heart, more than he would have liked.

“Don’t worry about it, you don’t need to be sorry. And you definitely don’t have to keep on going jogging with me every morning if-“

“I wanted to, I was just so tired.” The other man interrupted, slowly blinking his eyes open so Liam quickly looked away somewhere in the distance. Suddenly he was really aware of the weight of Niall’s head in his lap. “I’m afraid I won’t be able to come for a while now. But maybe it’s really not that bad and we still have more than 3 weeks left.”

“Let’s just see what they say at the hospital, okay? And we could also just… walk or something.” No idea why Liam suggested that, but it seemed as if Niall felt really bad about it, and honestly, Liam could go jogging every morning once he was back home, he’d just walk if it meant he could spend some more time with Niall. As pathetic as that sounded. 

“Or just meditate.” Niall joked and Liam smiled, thinking about each time Niall had tried but gotten restless after 5 seconds. 

“We’ll find something to do, don’t worry.” Liam promised, also a little, or a lot glad, that Niall seemed to not be thinking about going home, maybe even with Harry, because he definitely could’ve after getting hurt.

\---------------------

To say Niall was terrified was an understatement, he had never really been in a hospital before, not after an accident anyways because he had actually never gotten hurt this badly before. Maybe as a young child, but he couldn’t remember that, so he had no idea what to expect, and the only lifeline he could cling onto was Liam.

Who was doing the best job ever at trying to calm Niall down, and even though it didn’t work too well, Niall pretended that it did. And getting to hold onto Liam’s hand wasn’t something he had known he could’ve wanted, but now that he was, he was kinda afraid of once it wouldn’t be appropriate to anymore.

It felt like actual ages, until Niall had even just managed to sit up and even though Liam was sitting behind him and helping him, the younger man felt way too dizzy to just imagine walking. So when the medics got here, they had to actually put him on a stretcher to get him to the parking lot and of course everyone at camp saw them, but Niall just kept his eyes closed. It was obvious that Liam shouldn’t have been allowed to come, but he somehow talked the medics into it anyways so Niall had worried for nothing.

It was a long car ride, but Liam kept Niall distracted by just talking nonstop to him, about anything really, and though Niall was still in pain, it was bearable.

But Niall was still acting like a baby the moment he heard the doctor say he needed stitches.

“Niall, try to breathe, it’s going to be okay, I promise. They will give you a shot that will numb the area and-“

“That’s exactly the problem.” Niall interrupted, panicked and feeling pathetic but at the same time also way too exhausted and scared to care. And it was just him and Liam now waiting for the doctor to return.

“Try not to look, okay? It’ll be over before you know it.” Liam kept going, squeezing Niall’s hand because the younger man refused to let go of him at this point. “Hey.”

“What?” Niall accidentally sounded annoyed, but he was so afraid that he forgot to apologize.

“Look at me.” The older man softly demanded, so Niall did, even though he would have rather freaked out. “You’re going to be okay, I promise. I know it hurts, but that needle won’t hurt more than what you already went through, and it’s going to actually make it better. Okay? Don’t look when he does it, just keep looking at me.”

Honestly, Niall wasn’t sure whether this was any good advice or not, but he took a deep breath before nodding slowly, deciding to at least give it a try because what else should he have done anyways? Plus he had to admit that looking into Liam’s eyes was kinda soothing.

Didn’t mean he didn’t cry after, but it had been an emotional day so he was allowed a mental breakdown, right?

\--------------------

“He’s asleep, but I’ll text you when he wakes up.” Liam promised Louis on the phone, talking as quietly as possible because Niall was asleep, finally, after what had felt like hours. The room they were in was a single room, but it looked as if it was normally used for other things and they were just here because everywhere else was full and Liam was just lucky they hadn’t kicked him out yet.

“It’s fine, Harry just kept asking. So you’re not coming back?” About that…

“They wanna keep Niall overnight, he’s got a light concussion and because he blacked out and everything.” His leg was completely fine though, he did have to have stitches, but not too many and once the wound had been closed and patched up, it honestly hadn’t looked too bad anymore. Which had been a relief, but Liam hadn’t had a chance to be too relieved because he had focused his entire energy on making Niall feel better.

“I know, but I was talking about you.” Right.

“I mean… “ Liam started, not really knowing what arguments to use here because it was kinda self-explanatory and he knew that Louis _knew_. He just wanted to hear Liam say it. “I can’t leave him alone. And you know how to run the camp on your own for a night. Right?”

“Obviously.” Louis joked and Liam rolled his eyes to himself, re-arranging himself on the chair he was sitting in to look at Niall sleeping instead. “Who would’ve thought, huh?”

“Who would’ve thought what?” Liam decided to play dumb, just because, he could see Louis’ face right now even though they were only talking on the phone. For which he was actually really grateful.

“Who would’ve thought that just 2 weeks ago you wanted to send Niall home and now you’d use him falling out of a tree as an excuse to hold his hand. So romantic.” The other man laughed as Liam sighed, quietly, but he could also feel his cheeks turning a bit hotter. 

“_You_ wanted me to send him home. And I was just trying to make him feel better.” Liam lied, making sure to talk even more quietly, and that Niall was truly asleep because he would have died from embarrassment any other way. 

“Yeah right.” God, sometimes Louis could really get onto Liam’s nerves. Though he kinda had to admit that it was a little bit of his own fault in this situation. “I just wanted to say I actually think it’s really sweet, you’ve never been like this whenever you had a crush before. I’m just really surprised you’ve suddenly gone all shy and whatnot.”

“I’m not shy.” Just unsure, because even though Niall and Liam had spent so much time together just talking and whatnot, in many aspects, Niall was still a mystery to Liam. He wasn’t so easy to read, and Liam knew there were things going on, at home or wherever, that Niall didn’t wanna talk about. “It’s just… we’ll see where it goes.”

“Nowhere if you don’t say anything. ‘cos he surely won’t.” So motivating.

“How do you know?” Liam asked, but he already knew the answer anyways.

“I’m dating his best friend? Me and Harry already talked about everything and we decided you need to-“

“You and Harry _decided_ what _I_ need to do?” Just for clarification, but it didn’t even make Louis hesitate.

“Yeah, that’s what I just said? You need to make all the moves, Niall won’t.” Great. “He’s not had many relationships and-“

“Okay, okay, wait. I don’t wanna know this stuff, I don’t wanna talk about him behind his back, with you. Let’s just drop it, okay? I know what I’m doing.” Or not, but Louis didn’t have to know that. 

“Doesn’t really look like it.” Louis actually sounded WORRIED and Liam didn’t know what else to say, so he just said nothing at all. “Are you just gonna ignore me now? We’re having a literal phone conversation.”

“I actually gotta go, Niall’s waking up.” Liam lied, because Niall wasn’t even doing as much as just budging right now. “Call me if there’s an emergency.”

“Why? It’s not like you could do anything about it.” Fair enough.

“Okay, then don’t call me, whatever. I’ll see you tomorrow.” Hopefully, because Liam actually didn’t know when Niall was allowed to leave and he just knew that he’d stay with him for however long, even though he kinda had a summer camp to run, but… Louis was never unhappy about taking over for him anyways.

“Good luck.” Was all Louis said, and before Liam could have stupidly asked with what, he was already continuing. “Also, Zayn told me to tell you to tell Niall that he hopes he’s okay. Not that that changes anything, but-“

“He was just trying to be nice. Tell him thank you.” Liam interrupted his friend, resisting the urge to roll his eyes again. “Bye.”

“Wait, wait. Can me and Harry sleep in you guys’ cabin tonight?” Jesus Christ.

“Are you seriously asking me if you can have sex in either mine or Niall’s bed right now?” SERIOUSLY?!

“I didn’t say that.” But he had implied it and Liam hated that he now had to think about it. They had Louis’ cabin for themselves as well, but Liam’s and Niall’s was much further off from everyone else’s, and it was bigger as well, so it was obvious what they wanted. “So can we?”

“If you change the sheets. And never ever talk about it again.” Whatever, at this point Liam didn’t even care anymore.

“Thanks, you’re the best, Li.” Louis was obviously joking and Liam wanted to hang up when he made a kissing noise in the phone. “Bye, love you.”

“Yeah, bye.” And then Liam quickly ended the call before he could’ve been asked god knows what else, he didn’t even wanna know anymore. 

As soon as Liam had locked his phone, it was dead quiet in the room, nothing audible except for Niall’s even breathing and though Liam wasn’t at all tired and didn’t think he’d get a single second of sleep tonight, he decided that he’d be okay with it as long as he got to just stare at Niall while he slept. Maybe, by some miracle, it’d help him to sort out his thoughts and feelings.

\--------------------

Niall couldn’t even remember falling asleep, he just knew he was confused when he woke up and wasn’t actually in too much pain at all. It was kinda dark when he tried to re-orient himself, but not completely, and as soon as he managed to keep his eyes open, he quickly found Liam sitting on a chair next to his hospital bed, doing something on his phone.

“Hi… “ Niall tried, having to clear his throat and Liam immediately put his phone away, clearly surprised.

“I didn’t notice you’re awake, hi. How are you doing? Are you in pain? Should I get a nurse? Are you thirsty?” He just kept asking question and it would’ve made Niall smile had he not been so tired. 

“I’m good and it actually doesn’t hurt so much anymore, thanks… how late is it?” It felt like it was late, but Niall had no idea, he just felt bad that Liam had had to sit here the entire time while he had been sleeping.

“Nine or something, not too late. I think someone would’ve come to wake you in a bit anyways.” Right, they’d come to wake Niall a few times during the night because of his concussion, and he was already exhausted just thinking about it. So that made him feel even worse for Liam.

“You know, um… you don’t have to spend the night here if… if you don’t want to.” But Niall REALLY wanted him to, and he honestly wouldn’t have known what to do if Liam had decided to take him up on that.

“I won’t leave. Unless you want me t-“

“I don’t.” Niall quickly interrupted out of reflex, slightly embarrassed about it afterwards. 

“Okay, good, because I don’t want to.” He was lying right? To make Niall feel better probably. “Louis called to ask how you’re doing while you were asleep. Zayn said he hopes you’re okay. I think your phone’s out of charge, but you can use mine if you wanna call Harry or something.”

“No, it’s okay, thank you… he’s probably busy.” They shared a quick look over that and Niall almost had to laugh but then he didn’t, because he actually didn’t even wanna think about that.

“Probably.” Liam agreed after clearing his throat, but right when Niall had to grin a bit, Liam kinda ruined it. “You can also call someone else though, if you want to. Your parents or whoever.”

“Yeah, um, I don’t know their numbers by heart.” Not a lie. “But thank you.”

“I can try to find a phone charger for you.” Liam offered, not letting it go, so Niall immediately shook his head, maybe a bit too fast.

“No, no, don’t worry about it. I don’t wanna freak anyone out or so. And it’s not so bad after all, I’ll probably be out of here tomorrow… right?” Niall made it into a question because he actually wasn’t that sure and he was pretty certain that Liam knew more than him because Niall had been busy being a baby.

“I hope so. I’m pretty sure, actually.” Liam added the second part only after some slight hesitation, and Niall tried not to be too worried over it. “I won’t leave you alone here either way, Louis can manage the camp just fine without me, and I’m sure Harry could also jump in and watch a group of kids, so we’re all good.”

“Okay… “ Niall still felt bad about it, but he wasn’t going to talk Liam into leaving or whatever, he actually needed him here a lot more than he would have ever admitted. “I’ll try to stay awake as long as I can in case you can’t sleep in that chair, it doesn’t look so comfortable.”

“Don’t worry about me, okay? I’m completely fine. I’ve just been playing on my phone and stuff, I’m not actually tired either. I just want you to be okay, so if you wanna sleep, then please sleep.” The older man sounded very sincere and Niall felt himself blush a bit by just how much Liam seemed to care about his health. He would’ve also offered that they could share the bed, but like… it was a hospital, and it would’ve probably been inappropriate as well, and Liam probably wouldn’t have wanted to either way. 

“I’m not too tired right now… what’ve you been playing on your phone?” Niall was trying to stay awake here, so he let Liam show him some game on his phone, and then a nurse came in a bit later and it was obvious that no one was happy about Liam being here. They knew the situation though, and about the summer camp, so he was allowed to spend the night. Simply also because he actually wouldn’t have been able to get back during that time of night anyways.

“Can I ask you something?” When Liam said that, it was way later, and Niall was getting really tired again because they had given him something to take and he had been talking with Liam for so long.

“Sure.” Niall wasn’t thinking anything of it, he had to yawn every five seconds as well, and maybe that was why Liam had chosen that moment to ask. Because honestly, he seemed to be a little hesitant.

“I was just wondering… “ He started, and when he suddenly looked away from Niall, the younger man got a little bit scared. “I understand if you don’t wanna like, talk about it, I just… I mean, back at home, are things like… alright?”

“Umm, what do you mean?” Obviously Niall had known that Liam must’ve gotten suspicious at some point, he just hadn’t been prepared to be asked right now. 

“Like… “ Liam continued, making some movement with his hand, clearly regretting that he had started this, and Niall was as well. “Your family. Uni. I don’t know, just… in general.”

So then Niall had to make a very quick choice, one that he should’ve made right at the beginning but hadn’t, stupidly having told himself that Liam wouldn’t ask him ever again. That he’d never ever find out that Niall had been lying, more than just once. 

“You don’t have to talk about it.” Liam assured him one more time, and Niall appreciated it, but he still needed a moment to make up his mind. Maybe… maybe he didn’t need to say everything. Maybe the beginning was enough.

“It’s fine, um… “ It really, really wasn’t. “Things are a bit, like… complicated. In my family, I mean, so… so I wasn’t too unhappy about leaving for the summer.”

“Is that why you chose to work at the camp instead of anywhere else?” Well…

“Kind of… I mean, there weren’t so many other options, so like… “ None, to be exact, but Niall just shrugged a bit, playing with the blanket. “It’s nothing crazy, like, nothing that can’t be fixed, just… some problems we gotta work out.”

“Okay… do you wanna talk about it?” Liam seemed to really only be offering because he cared, or maybe pitied Niall, and for a second Niall almost wanted to say yes, just spill it all to Liam, but then he didn’t and instead stuck to the absolute minimum. 

“Um, I don’t know… my parents got a divorce, so.” Niall shrugged, although there really wasn’t a lot to talk about because it was what it was. “And because I still live at home it kinda affects me as well, so yeah. That’s it basically, it’s not that deep, ummm… I was gonna move out anyways.”

“After uni?” Liam kept on asking, again asking that same uni question as if he was doing it on purpose or something. Maybe he was, maybe he knew exactly what was going on. 

“Yeah… “ That wasn’t a lie either, Niall had been talking in the past tense after all. “Anyways, it’s not that dramatic, it just sometimes feels like it, but I’m okay, I’ll be fine, so.”

“I’m sorry your parents are getting a divorce.” He did sound sorry, but Niall suddenly felt like a child or something. He was 23 years old, his parents getting a divorce shouldn’t have affected him that much honestly but it still did of course because of the situation he and his whole family were in. 

“It’s for the best.” It really was, even with all the consequences that came with it. “It’s gonna be okay.”

“I’m here if you wanna talk.” Liam offered yet again, as if he desperately wanted Niall to open up to him and at this point, Niall would have, but then Liam would have found out about all the lies Niall had told him, and continued to tell him, so he’d rather not because he didn’t want Liam to be mad at him. Pretty sure he wouldn’t have even survived that. 

“Thank you… “ Niall meant it, he appreciated the older man’s efforts, even if they made him feel quite pathetic and he’d never be able to actually take him up on that offer.

They stayed quiet for a moment, and Niall realized that there was now no bloody way that he’d go to sleep any time soon, especially not when Liam continued. With a topic he probably thought was a lighter one but was actually going even deeper. “Do you wanna move out by yourself?”

“I mean… I don’t know if I could afford that right now.” He couldn’t, and Niall didn’t know why, but suddenly he really felt like whining. “I, uh, I always had a plan with Harry, that we’d be roommates. And then I didn’t really have a plan B.”

“Oh.” Was all Liam said, because it was very self-explanatory. 

“But don’t tell Louis, okay? Please. Me and Harry never really talked about it anymore after he met Louis so I never brought it back up because, you know, obviously he’s not gonna be my roommate anymore now.” Even if Harry and Louis broke up in the future, which Niall kinda doubted, Harry would probably have a stable income and then it’d be too late anyways to start being roommates. It’s not that Niall desperately wanted a roommate, he just had no idea how he’d ever afford a place by himself now. “Actually, can we just pretend I never said that?”

“We can, but I feel like maybe you should talk to Harry about it. He’s your best friend, right? Since kindergarten?” True, but that didn’t change the fact that he was in a serious relationship.

“Yeah, but I won’t. It’d just be weird and he’d feel bad and it wouldn’t change anything. It’s fine, I don’t wanna sound like I’m complaining, I just gotta figure things out is all.” Niall quickly tried to shrug it off, and not say even more because he didn’t wanna come off jealous. He wasn’t, just a bit lost. 

There was more silence between them, uncomfortable silence, and Niall thought he had truly ruined everything now, but then Liam surprised him maybe even more than Niall would have ever expected. “You know… if you need some time away from home and don’t know where to go… my place isn’t that small. And I think we live pretty close actually, from what Louis has told me.”

“I… “ Niall started, a little bit speechless as he looked at Liam with wide eyes, trying to process that information, or offer more like, but the older man seemed to have really and truly meant it exactly the way he had said it. “Thank you, I… I don’t know what to say.”

“You don’t have to say anything, just know the offer stands, okay? I don’t know what exactly is going on or what the situation will be like when the camp is over, but I don’t want you to be afraid of having to go back home or something. Or even after that. Okay?” This was probably the nicest thing Niall had ever been offered by someone who he only knew for like 3 weeks, even though it felt like much longer, and he kinda had to hold back tears even though he felt quite stupid about all of it.

“Okay… thank you, Liam. Really.” Seriously, at least that was kind of a confirmation that Liam couldn’t have found him too annoying, right?

The older man just smiled, reaching out to touch Niall’s arm and Niall could’ve sworn his skin caught straight on fire. At least that’s what it felt like.

\---------------------

It was an uncomfortable night because Liam only had a chair to sit in, but he actually got like a few hours of sleep, even if his entire body was hurting in the morning. At least Niall seemed to be feeling a lot better and was allowed to leave the hospital, which was a pretty big relief to both of them. 

They hadn’t continued their talk from last night, even though Liam had had an urge to the entire time, but he could just tell that Niall didn’t wanna talk about it anymore. At least now Liam truly understood the initial problems between Niall and Louis, from both sides. He also couldn’t imagine that it was any fun for Harry to deal with this because he must’ve known how the other two felt, and it just sucked for Niall that he was drawing the short stick.

So maybe that’s why Liam had just basically offered him to stay at his place without thinking about it. But he didn’t regret it in the morning, or anytime after, because he had truly meant it. 

“I think you should take it easy for a few days, and not be too far away from the camp or from another counselor. Maybe you and Louis should put your groups together again.” Liam was thinking out loud on their way back in the taxi that was driving them to the camp, just making suggestions here. But he was very positively surprised by Niall’s answer.

“Or me and you could do the same. Unless you don’t want to.” He very quickly added the second part, making Liam smile. He was a lot happier about this than he should’ve been.

“Sure, if you want to, I just thought maybe you’d wanna spend time with Harry.” Then again, Niall also hadn’t asked Harry to come to hospital with him, and he had sent Louis to come get Liam, and when they had left the hospital and waited for a taxi, Niall had hugged Liam out of nowhere, thanking him for having stayed with him. They had hugged a bit longer than appropriate maybe, but not long enough for Liam either ways.

“I can still see him.” Niall shrugged, as if it wasn’t a big deal, and Liam hoped that it really wasn’t. After all, he knew that Niall and Harry were pretty good friends. “And… I’m not sure if me and Louis work out that well together watching the kids, so… “

“I don’t think it surprises you when I tell you that you’re the fifth counselor who has told me that this summer.” Liam had to laugh and Niall looked surprised for a moment but then he joined, and for a second there, everything was kinda great. 

\----------------------

Since Niall did have a light concussion and was supposed to take it easy, and with stiches in his leg, Liam told him that he would absolutely not allow him to go jogging for a few days, so instead they turned their jogs into morning walks, sometimes up to the rock, sometimes just around the lake. Somehow though, Liam found himself enjoying it more than the jogging, because it meant they could have actual conversations the entire time. 

Five days after Niall had fallen out of that tree, he was completely back to his normal self, so Liam kinda had no arguments for not taking him on the one night camping trip they were taking a few kids on. Plus, after everything that had happened and spending the last five days together, pretty much 24/7, Liam had grown so protective over Niall that he wouldn’t have even known how to survive going without him.

“Li, I’m fine, it’s not even that long of a walk. I can just take a break if it gets too much, but my leg’s not even hurting anymore.” Niall had rolled his eyes when Liam had voiced his worries in the morning, so after a quick discussion, Liam had agreed that Niall could come. He was safer with Liam anyways, and both Louis and Zayn were coming as well and it was Harry’s last night, so obviously he was coming too, so it would’ve kinda left Niall with a lot of people he barely knew.

“Okay, but you can’t carry that much, it’s putting too much weight on your leg. Put it in my bag.” Liam ordered him even though Niall really was not packing that much, but the younger man just rolled his eyes with a smirk, doing what he had been told. 

It wasn’t a long walk to where they’d put up their tents because they had a bunch of kids with them, but still a few hours and Liam was a little worried about Niall, but he tried to keep it together in front of everyone else.

Liam was leading the way because he was the only one who knew it, a few kids wanting to walk next to him, holding the map and pretending that they were leading. Meanwhile Zayn was all the way in the back, making sure no one got lost, and Niall kinda alternated between walking with Liam or talking with a few kids, sometimes with Harry and Louis. He was mostly busy with the kids though, because they all liked him so much and wanted to hold his hand while walking and whenever Liam threw a look back, his heart could’ve literally burst. 

“Do we have to build the tents ourselves? I’ve never built a tent, I don’t know how.” One of the kids walking with Liam asked when they were getting closer to the spot, sooner than anticipated because Liam had decided to skip an activity on the way he knew no one would’ve wanted to do anyways. After doing this for so many years he was still changing his attitude and becoming more relaxed and flexible, thanks to Niall.

“Don’t worry, I know how and we’ll all help each other out, okay? It’s not that hard, you’ll see.” Liam promised, but it kinda reminded him of something, so he turned around briefly, kinda calling out to the other four. “Are all 4 of you carrying tents?”

“Uh, yeah? You told us to. Two of the kids have one as well.” Right, so basically…. “Please don’t tell me we’ve got too many now and that I’m doing this for nothing.”

“It’s not for nothing, Tommo.” Liam didn’t roll his eyes in front of the kids, but that piece of information did make him think for a moment. He had thought they’d probably all have to share or something, but if they had 7 bloody tents… 

He didn’t finish that thought, but Liam’s eyes must’ve gotten stuck on Niall for a bit too long before he turned his head and he was pretty damn sure he could hear Louis whisper behind him but decided to just ignore it. Well, obviously if Liam could get the chance then he’d share a tent with Niall only, they were used to sleeping next to each other after all. No other reason.

Or maybe a whole ton of other reasons Liam didn’t wanna think about. 

It was actually quite a struggle helping everyone to put up their tents, because even though Liam thought it was kinda self explanatory, he was the only one who actually managed to do it on the first try and in the end, he did build all 7 of them with only Niall staying to help until the end.

“Can I be honest?” Niall asked Liam after they had gotten done with the last one, the other three having taken the kids to collect some sticks and whatnot for a small fire. 

“Of course.” Liam was confused for a moment, thinking Niall was being serious when he looked him straight in the eyes.

“I don’t think I can handle sleeping in the same tent as the kids. Even if it’s just a few of them.” That made Liam laugh, but only after it had fully sunk in and he wrapped his arm around the younger’s shoulders out of reflex, squeezing him a bit.

“You won’t have to, don’t worry, we’ve got enough tents and the kids are smaller than us anyways.” Plus, they only had 10 kids with them, so it really shouldn’t have been a problem and Louis could complain all he wanted about having had to carry a tent for nothing when it hadn’t even been big or anything. “Can you handle sleeping next to me?”

“I’ve slept next to you for almost an entire month, it’d be weirder not to.” Niall said it all casually and Liam couldn’t exactly help that his heart was fluttering a little bit. It kinda worried him though, because Niall putting a timestamp on it was only reminding him that they were already on day 25, more than half the time here was over and who knew what would happen once they were back home?

They attempted to make a fire once everyone was back because it was getting a bit later and the kids were getting hungry and Louis seemed to be really eager to tell some of his very old and used scary stories, so they all sat around the fire, and Liam had to admit, maybe it WAS a little obvious, just how much he and Niall always stuck together like glue. But then again, he was pretty sure no one was questioning it anymore, and Louis was the only one who ever commented on it when he was alone with Liam.

Maybe he had been right after all, maybe Liam really did have to make the first step if he ever wanted something to happen. Or at least find out whether Niall even _wanted_ anything to happen.

“That’s not even scary!” One of the kids threw in after Louis was done with the first story, probably because it wasn’t even dark yet and the sun was only just setting.

“You say that now but wait in a few hours when you hear noises outside your tent when it’s all dark.” Louis immediately gave back and Liam shook his head at him across the fire but he was being ignored. “Just don’t come crying to me then, okay? Go to Niall and Liam.”

There was a reason he had said that, just to tease Niall and Liam obviously, because after Liam had revealed the sleeping situation to everyone, Louis apparently hadn’t been able to help himself but to wink at Liam in the most obvious way. As if he and Niall weren’t alone every single night anyways.

“I’m not going outside of my tent if I hear noises, I’m not stupid.” Fair enough. “That is how people always die in horror movies.”

“Who allows you to watch horror movies? I’m gonna have a chat with your mom when she comes to pick you up.” Louis was just joking of course, but the boy only shrugged anyways.

“Okay, but she watches them with me.” Liam had to bite the inside of his cheek so he wouldn’t laugh because Louis clearly didn’t know what to say to that, so he just grinned at him. “That’s why I know your story isn’t real.”

“Yeah? Well, then wait until you hear what happened last summer when someone said that.” And yeah, then Louis jumped right into the next story and Liam actually found it was rather funny, how much he was getting into it, but he didn’t have a lot of time to think about it when he suddenly felt a weight on his shoulder.

“Are you okay?” Liam half whispered, kinda surprised that Niall was leaning into him, in front of everyone, but if he was being honest, they kinda always acted this way now, no matter who was there or who wasn’t. 

“Yeah, just a bit tired, it was a long walk. And no, my leg doesn’t hurt, I’m just not in shape.” Niall quickly added, chuckling as Liam rubbed his back, keeping his eyes away from everyone else’s. Luckily Louis was busy exaggerating some made up story about last summer.

“You’re not out of shape either.” He truly wasn’t, they had gone jogging quite a lot, and their walks counted as well. And Liam had seen Niall shirtless countless times, but he was NOT going to say that now even though Niall of course knew that. They shared a cabin after all, and some nights were just too hot to wear a shirt.

“More than you.” Niall argued, lifting his head from Liam’s shoulder for a moment and the older man almost got sad over it, but Niall only leaned forward to get a marshmallow before going back into his original position where he pretty much stayed the rest of the night, much to Liam’s enjoyment. 

Louis had a lot more stories than anyone cared to hear, but he told them anyways. A few kids were really sad that Niall hadn’t brought the guitar, so instead they were just singing without it, roasting a few more marshmallows and normal food, and by the time it had gotten dark, Liam made sure to send them all of to their tents a little earlier than normally. He wanted to have them all inside and not wander off somewhere into the forest and get lost, so he was also pretty glad that Zayn didn’t care about sharing a tent with a few of the kids.

“Is the fire really out? Kinda makes me paranoid.” Niall asked for the fifth time, so Liam poured yet another water bottle over the remains just to calm the younger man down. “Thank you.” 

“You’re welcome. Are you guys also going to sleep, or… ?” Liam asked, directed at Harry and Louis, who were still sitting leaned against a tree, watching something on Louis’ phone because somehow the signal was 100 times better here than at the camp.

“Yeah, in a few minutes. Have fun though.” Louis just HAD had to say it, and neither Liam nor Niall answered, but Liam knew that his own cheeks must’ve been pretty damn red when they crawled into their tent.

Luckily they hadn’t put them up too close together, so if they whispered, no one would be able to hear them.

“Maybe we should’ve taken one of the bigger tents.” Niall chuckled after he and Liam had bumped into each other probably 12 times trying to get into their sleeping bags. They hadn’t changed their clothes, just taken their pants off, and they were lying so close next to each other that Liam would have just had to move his arm to touch the younger man.

“Then we would have had to share with the kids though.” And neither of them would have survived that.

They kinda stayed quiet for a minute or so, and Liam almost thought that Niall had already fallen asleep, but it was him who spoke up first.

“There’s a mosquito in here.” He was right, but Liam only noticed it after Niall had said it and it made him groan as the younger man laughed quietly. “We’re not gonna sleep, are we?”

“Probably not, no. But we’ve got nothing planned for tomorrow except getting back to the camp and- fuck, it literally flew in my face.” God damn it.

“Should we try to find it? We can use my phone.” Niall offered, clearly trying to hold back his laughter, but Liam just sighed.

“No, leave it, I wouldn’t be able to sleep even if it wasn’t there.” There were noises from outside, whispers they couldn’t make out and the occasional movement, one of the kids laughing or maybe even Harry and Louis. Also, it was too early to sleep anyways. “It’s like half 9.”

“On the first day you also made me go to sleep at 9 or something, just so we could get up at 5.” That was true and Liam felt a bit bad about that thinking back even though it already felt like it was ages in the past now.

“I’m sorry. I was stressed that day and I always try to get the newbies used to the schedule so they don’t stay up all night or something, it’s happened before. Also… I just wanted to sleep myself.” And he hadn’t wanted to go jogging by himself, but no one before Niall had ever felt an urge to come along more than twice.

“I figured.” Though they couldn’t see each other in darkness, Liam knew that Niall was smiling, and it kinda made him return it, even though the younger man would never be able to tell. “It feels like we’ve been at the camp for half a year or something, it’s crazy.”

“It always feels like that. I always find it really hard to get back to my normal routine once I’m home again.” And this time, it’d be even harder, but Liam spared himself that thought. Maybe it’d be even harder for Niall, considering his situation at home, as far as Liam knew about it because it seemed a lot more serious than he was letting on. “Do you think you’d wanna come back next summer?”

“Maybe, yeah… “ Niall had hesitated and Liam couldn’t be mad, it was hard to know what life would be like a year from now. “Maybe I’ll come to one of your hiking tours.”

“You definitely should.” Liam agreed immediately, kinda really loving the though but trying not to get too into it because he wasn’t so sure if Niall had really meant it. “You can also have a private one, you know.”

“For double the price?” The younger man laughed and Liam agreed, pretending to be serious. 

“Yeah, and I’m also still waiting for my payment for going jogging with you as well.” He joked, and Niall huffed.

“Suddenly it’s _you_ going with _me_, huh? Seems like you gotta find someone else to get up at the crack of dawn for you every single day.” Niall had clearly said the ‘for you’ without thinking, and he also didn’t seem to immediately realize it, but Liam had, and it made him feel all soft inside, even as Niall struggled to talk himself out of it, the jokes gone. “I mean, I do enjoy it. Most of the time. I didn’t mean it like that.”

“Well, even if you had, I’d be really grateful that you’d do this just for me.” Liam told him quietly, his heart suddenly beating a lot faster. 

“It’s both…” Niall admitted after a moment, whispering it even more quietly than they had already been before, and the silence following that was a little awkward, but Liam’s thoughts were running wild anyways, so he didn’t take too much notice of it.

They were just lying there for a moment, almost touching one another, way too little space in this damn tent, and Liam could feel the tension, could’ve almost bloody grabbed it, and as he thought about the past few weeks, everything going on and the situation between them, he suddenly decided from one second to the next that he couldn’t take it anymore.

“Are you also cold?” He blurted out, not knowing how else to do this because he hadn’t prepared himself.

“No, I- I mean, yeah. A bit. Kinda.” Niall stumbled over his own words, and Liam would’ve laughed had he not suddenly become so damn nervous as he propped himself up on his elbow, his heart almost jumping out of his damn chest. 

“You know… maybe we should like… maybe if he lied closer… “ Liam started, like some teenage boy or whatever, and Niall immediately agreed, seemingly just as nervous, which was kind of a relief, but not really. 

They did move closer to one another, but barely because there hadn’t been much space to begin with, and Liam stayed propped up on his elbow, looking down at Niall or what he could make out in complete darkness, and he almost chickened out for a second or two.

“If I… “ He broke off then to lick his lips and swallow, very slowly moving his arm across Niall’s body, so he could’ve stopped him if he had wanted to. He didn’t. “If I do something you don’t want then say it immediately… okay?”

“Okay… but you won’t.” Niall whispered back, which was all the reassurance Liam had needed. That, and the younger’s hand moving up his arms as he leaned down.

The anticipation was almost killing Liam as he felt Niall’s breath brushing over his skin, felt the tip of his nose against his own, and the idea of his lips when there was still the tiniest gap between them. Liam felt himself smile, a laugh almost escaping him because he had waited what felt like ages for this moment, and suddenly it was here and he didn’t want it to ever end.

Niall stayed still as Liam left him some time, asking for silent permission before moving closer, a little surprised when their lips were suddenly touching because he had had his eyes closed. It was only that for a bit, just them getting to know what it felt like to kiss the other, and though Liam kinda felt an urge to move faster, he also wanted to do it as slowly as humanly possible, drag it out until forever.

It was Niall though who kinda pushed up a little, increasing the pressure against Liam’s lips as his fingers had found the older’s hair, pulling him down more firmly against him as they started to slowly kiss for real. Niall’s lips were really soft, and kissing him felt like Liam had never kissed anyone else before, or at least never done it right because it had never been like this. It had never made Liam feel so dizzy and warm at the same time, almost as if everything else before this had just been leading up to this.

They got into it pretty quickly, as if they had done this a million times before, and when Liam gently parted his lips, just to see if Niall even wanted to go further, the younger man’s tongue was already brushing over his bottom lip, the fingers in Liam’s hair tugging even harder. So that was confirmation enough for Liam.

He hadn’t planned on snogging Niall the first time they kissed, hell, he hadn’t even known that they would have a kiss at all, but here they were, snogging in a tent just meters away from everyone else, getting so into it that Liam almost forgot where they were, that they couldn’t take it even further. Niall tasted like heaven, and the way he kissed Liam, the way their tongues brushed and his skin felt underneath Liam’s touch, it was everything Liam had never known he had been craving.

So when he felt something wet against his fingers, he was so shocked he breathlessly interrupted the kiss.

“Why are you crying?!” Liam whispered, scared and a little helpless because was he doing something Niall didn’t even want?!

“’m not… kiss me again.” Was all that came back, and though Liam KNEW that Niall was crying and that there must’ve been a reason, he didn’t resist when Niall pushed his head back down to connect their lips once more, and a few seconds later, Liam would’ve had to admit that he had forgotten all about it.

Shit, why hadn’t they done this way sooner?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> hi guys!
> 
> i know its been too long, im so sorry! i actually wrote this entire chapter in 5 hours rip, i hope you enjoyed it! i will also definitely need two more chapters, if not even more, we will see! please let me know what youre thinking!! i had my masters entrance exam two days ago, so at least now i only got my summer job to worry about so that gives me a bit more free time (if not much but i am trying my best and its almost september!). 
> 
> thank you for all the lovely comments and all the kudos, i love you guys, have a great week! i will get the next chapter up as quickly as possible!


	4. Chapter 4

Niall couldn’t really believe that they were kissing, even though he was fully aware of everything, the way Liam tasted, the touch of his lips and his tongue, his beard against Niall’s skin, it still felt like a dream somehow. A really good fucking dream.

Niall hadn’t kissed, let alone _snogged_, a lot of people in his life, but even if he had, he was pretty sure no one would’ve come close to being so good at it as Liam was. It was like, a feeling Niall couldn’t even describe had he tried, and he never wanted them to pull apart again, just keep on snogging even though they’d probably run out of air at some point.

The thing was though, as much as Niall was into it, as much as he wanted Liam, held him closer by his head, at the same time the younger man felt so many emotions, both negative and positive, that he just couldn’t hold back those damn tears.

There was so much going on, so much Liam didn’t even know, things Niall had lied about, and god, how would all of this even end? Was it a one time thing? Was it a fling? A summer romance? 

Whatever it was, Niall was a little afraid of finding out.

“You are crying… “ Liam noted again as they pulled apart for just a second, quietly, and Niall kept his eyes closed, wanted to ignore the comment and just keep on kissing Liam, but the other man didn’t allow it. “What’s wrong? Did I do something? Did I-“

“You didn’t, it’s nothing.” Niall lied, still having his fingers bunched into Liam’s hair, trying to steady his breathing. He could still taste Liam in his mouth, could still feel his lips against his own and there was nothing in the world he wanted more right now than to just forget about everything else except the two of them in this very tent. “Kiss me again…”

But Liam didn’t, which was very frustrating, so Niall had to blink his eyes open, barely being able to make out Liam’s face in complete darkness, but they were so close that Niall still felt the older’s breath mixing with his own. “Ni, what’s wrong?”

“Nothing… “ Niall breathed, closing his eyes again as Liam brushed his thumb over his cheek, so softly that it gave the younger boy shivers. “I’m just… emotional. It’s not a bad thing, I… I just never thought that… you know, that you’d wanna, uh, like… kiss me. Or so.”

“Why?” WHY?! Had he ever looked at himself and then at Niall?

“Don’t know… didn’t think I was, like, your type.” Then Niall forced a quick laugh, but it was weird so he stopped, moving a bit in his sleeping bag, which kinda only brought him closer to Liam though. 

“You are.” Liam promised, and it sounded as if he was amused now, which only made Niall blush even more. Thankfully it was dark. And also kinda getting hot, but Niall wasn’t complaining about either.

“I figured… after you kissed me, y’know.“ He mumbled, which made Liam laugh quietly, and Niall was just glad that they seemed to have moved on from the fact that he had been crying.

It was true, happiness had been one reason that had made Niall cry, but there were several others. 

“So… can you do it again?” This time, Niall luckily wasn’t disappointed.

He also didn’t cry anymore, because he was a lot more busy kissing Liam back and at the same time trying to keep it together because he honestly wouldn’t have minded taking this a lot further. At one point Niall thought they actually would, when Liam moved more on top of him and Niall somehow managed to pull the zipper of his sleeping bag to half open it and be closer to the older man, but then they didn’t.

Probably because it was a bit too spontaneous, but mainly because it would’ve been highly inappropriate, next to all these kids. Or maybe Liam wouldn’t have even wanted to, who knew?

“Hmm, we should’ve done this sooner.” Liam whispered after they had pulled apart, rubbing his nose against Niall’s and his breath was tickling the younger’s skin. 

“Why didn’t you?” Niall whispered back, not wanting to sound accusing or anything, he genuinely wanted to know because he had been thinking the same thing. 

“Didn’t know if you wanted to… and I… I wasn’t sure if we should.” He said the last part slowly, hesitant, and it made Niall’s stomach drop a little, but he knew what Liam meant because he was having the same worries right now. “I don’t normally, like… I don’t really do this.”

“What? Kiss people?” Niall joked although he kinda regretted it right after. The situation had just gotten a little awkward, so he was trying to somehow make light of it so he wouldn’t have to cry yet again. Ever since falling out of that tree, Niall was a little bit of a mess, so maybe they should’ve checked out his head a bit more thoroughly. Or maybe it was just Liam’s presence.

“No, I mean… you know, at the camp.” Oh.

“So I’m not just gonna be your next summer fling?” Though it definitely came out like a joke, Niall hated himself for actually being hopeful.

“You’re an idiot.” Liam told him straight up, but in a really soft way, and Niall couldn’t complain when the older man was suddenly kissing him again, briefly but gently. 

He never really answered the question though.

There were a thousand things Niall wanted to ask and talk about, but he didn’t because if he was being honest with himself then he didn’t even want answers to his questions. Also, he wasn’t sure if Liam would have even been able to give him any anyways. It was a bit too soon to really know what would happen after this, what they’d do for the remaining time here, where it’d take them and whether this would really be some summer romance.

All Niall knew was that he definitely did not mind sharing his sleeping bag with Liam a whole while later, or having the older’s arm wrapped around his waist, and it didn’t even bother him that the older boy kept quietly complaining about that damn mosquito because all Niall was thinking about was the way he could feel Liam’s breath against the back of his exposed neck.

\-----------------------

Surprisingly enough, the morning after wasn’t weird at all. After staring at Niall sleeping for a good 10 minutes, Liam decided he didn’t want this to be a one time thing, so he kissed the younger man the second he started waking up, and Niall certainly wasn’t complaining.

There was no time to really talk this out or get into it because everyone else was going to wake up also and possibly catch or hear them, but Liam was in a strangely elevated mood the entire morning packing up all the tents, stealing those glance at Niall that made his stomach flutter. If he had to wait until bed time before they’d kiss again, he’d literally go crazy.

God damn it, Liam hadn’t planned for this to happen, he hadn’t been prepared, and now it seemed it was absolutely everything he could think about.

“I don’t know if Niall should carry you, he hurt his leg.” Liam was a little concerned when they had been walking for an hour or so, and of the boys had convinced Niall to give him a piggyback ride. 

“I’m fine, I don’t even feel my leg.” Niall promised, seemingly carrying the boy as if he weighed nothing and yeah, he WAS probably really light, but Liam was still freaking out a little on the inside. He would have carried him himself instead, but then he would have had to give Niall his backpack. “We’ll only do this for a little bit anyways, yeah? Just for a few minutes.”

“I don’t wanna walk anymore though, can’t you carry me all the way back to the camp?” The boy complained, and Liam had to actually bite his tongue so he wouldn’t interfere. 

“Let’s just see how long I’ll manage, okay?” That made the boy cheer and it made Liam even more worried than he had been to begin with.

Since last night he was itching to touch Niall the entire time, and just be close to him, which was really hard with so many people around, most of them kids, and then Louis and Harry probably picking up on absolutely everything going on between them. Liam wouldn’t have cared had everyone known, the thing was though, they hadn’t really talked about this or figured it out themselves yet.

When Niall wandered off with a few kids a little bit, and Liam kinda had to keep on leading the way, he was so damn busy thinking it all through that he kinda flinched terribly when Louis suddenly spoke up, somehow having ended up next to him.

“What’s wrong with you?” He asked bluntly, and Liam immediately felt caught, but he tried to shrug it off.

“What do you mean?” Playing dumb was never a good solution, especially not when Louis was involved, and yet Liam tried it over and over again.

“You’re acting off. And you’ve not pointed out a hundred plants on the way that no one cares about.” True, also kinda rude, but still true.

“I knew that no one would care.” Liam shrugged, clearing his throat a little, resisting the urge to turn around when he heard someone scream about a bug behind them. “I’m just tired.”

“Was the tent too small for two people after all?” Louis was teasing now, and Liam was probably already red as a tomato, but he still rolled his eyes, pretending as if Louis wasn’t spot on. Although both Niall and Liam had enjoyed the tightness of the space, so… “C’mon, I’m just teasing, don’t be so grumpy.”

“I’m not grumpy.” He really wasn’t, just a little overwhelmed thinking about how little time they had left in the camp, and that he basically had no idea what Niall wanted or what he himself even wanted. And the longer Liam thought about it, the more did he realize how little he knew about Niall. Like, he knew him of course, even deeper things and whatnot, but like, pretty much nothing about his life and… god, since when did Liam just go ahead and kiss people he liked? “Don’t you wanna spend Harry’s last day with him?”

“We can handle 5 minutes apart. And we’re all going home soon anyways.” Way to rub salt into the wound. “Not gonna lie, I’m kinda excited about this being over and living a normal life again. And not smell like dirt all the time.”

“We have showers here.” Liam reminded him as a joke, because he knew exactly what his friend was talking about.

“You know what I mean. I do feel kinda gross today though, like this whole tent experience… maybe we should just scratch that in the future.” As much as Louis seemed to miss his shower, Liam couldn’t help but think about how he wouldn’t have wanted to kinda wash away last night, Niall’s touch and his smell and fuck, Liam felt like he was a teenager with a crush all of a sudden. “Did Niall enjoy it?”

“What?” Liam asked, almost thinking that Louis KNEW.

“Sleeping in a tent?” Oh.

“Right, uh. Yeah. I don’t know, I didn’t ask.” They had had other things to do. “I think he did.”

“Mhm.” Was all Louis made, but Liam refrained from looking over right now. “And how’s his leg?”

“I don’t know, why don’t you ask him all these things?” Seriously, Louis was just trying to get Liam worked up, or maybe hoping for some gossip, but there was absolutely NO way that Liam would tell him about last night. At least not right now. 

“I thought you probably know since you’re always all up in his face about not putting too much weight on it and-“

“I’m not. I just don’t want anyone to get hurt.” That was good, right? Making it about everyone instead of just Niall? God, Liam was actually pathetic. “Anyways, are you going to the train station with Harry later?”

“I was going to, why? Is that a problem?” Louis asked with his eyebrow pulled up, and Liam made sure to look away again the second their eyes met because he was still afraid that his friend was reading him like an open book. To be fair, he kinda was, and it was Liam’s fault for being so damn obvious all the freaking time. 

“No, just wanted to check. When are you gonna be back?” Liam continued just so they wouldn’t switch back to other topics and of course Louis felt interrogated but whatever. It’s what he did to Liam all the time as well. 

“I’ve got no clue. If it’s a problem then just tell me now.” He was starting to get upset, which wasn’t what Liam had wanted but if it meant that Louis would leave him alone with his thoughts and worries again… 

“It’s not a problem, just let me know, okay?” So then Louis just rolled his eyes before nodding, and luckily one of the kids was screaming behind them over some stick that looked like a snake or whatever, so that ended the conversation.

And a minute later when Liam was walking by himself again, he suddenly wasn’t so sure anymore whether a bit of company wouldn’t have been better than these thoughts he was having the entire way back to the camp.

\--------------------

“Are you sad that Harry left?” Niall flinched a bit upon hearing Liam’s voice behind him, not at all having expected him to be there although he had been scanning the room for him already. 

“Not really, I’ll see him again soon, it’s fine.” When Liam sat down opposite Niall with his food, the younger man had trouble not just staring at his lips, or his hands, imaging how they had felt against his skin.

They had been busy all day, first with walking back to the camp and then doing stuff with the kids again and they hadn’t seen each other for at least an hour or two and Niall kinda hated how nervous it had made him. As if Liam could have somehow decided in the meantime that he actually wasn’t into Niall at all.

Because it still seemed slightly unrealistic to Niall anyways. 

“I’m… I’m kinda more sad that the camp is gonna be ending soon.” Niall made it sound like a joke a little bit, surprised that he had actually just said that out loud. It had to be obvious to Liam what he had been implying, right?

“We still got over two weeks.” Liam reminded him, and for a second there, Niall thought that he was the only one who cared, but then Liam’s hand suddenly brushed against his own across the table and when Niall looked up, the softness in the other’s face was making his heart flutter. 

“Two weeks can go by really quickly.” Especially now, when they had already spent double that time not acting on their apparent crushes. And even now Niall wasn’t sure what it was, even though Liam was leaving his hand right there up against his, their pinkies crossed a bit, and it was already enough to make Niall’s breathing unsteady. 

“We don’t live far apart.” Apparently they were done pretending this was about the camp, good.

“Yeah… “ Niall swallowed, leaving his hand close to Liam’s for another moment before pulling it back when one of the other counselors passed them by, careful not to meet Liam’s eyes right after. “So… so once we go back home… “

“Yeah?” The older man asked, as if he didn’t know what Niall was about to say. Or what he was trying to say anyways, because he was a little bit nervous all of a sudden.

“Umm… “ Okay, what was wrong with him now? Liam had literally initiated last night, so obviously he had to like Niall somehow. In some way. “I just… was last night a one time thing, or… ?”

“If you want it to be.” Liam answered without hesitation, and Niall was slightly confused because why would he want that?

“I don’t.” He admitted immediately, though it made him blush quite a bit probably and he still had to avoid Liam’s eyes, but when the other’s hand fully covered his own, he relaxed a little bit.

“Okay. Me neither.” Thank god.

They were silent for a moment, with all the noise around them, but Niall didn’t even hear it, didn’t even think about anything other than the way Liam’s skin felt against his own, and the way he seemed to be staring right into Niall’s soul when the younger man finally made himself look up once more.

When Liam smiled, Niall returned it automatically, suddenly really wishing that they were already done eating, or not surrounded by so many people and kids especially.

Louis hadn’t come back from taking Harry to the train yet, and none of the other counselors seemed to be so keen on sitting with them, so Niall enjoyed having Liam to himself while they ate, even if it was just them talking about whatever, the occasional brush of hand, or their feet bumping together underneath the table. Kinda silly, but it still got Niall feeling all giddy inside and though he was still unsure and worried as well, he tried to push those feelings away in favor of all the good ones. Liam was right, they still had over two weeks, that was a long time, right?

When they walked back to their cabin together, Niall could feel his heart speeding up already at the thought of really being all alone with Liam, not in a tent, not right next to their friends and a bunch of kids. Just him and Liam and nobody else and though that had already happened weeks in a row now, tonight Niall still felt as if he was going to actually go a bit crazy thinking about it. 

“It’s starting to get dark a lot sooner somehow.” It was true, they were nearing the end of summer after all, and it was also a little bit chilly right now if Niall was being honest. “And colder. I hope the weather will hold so the kids can go swim again, they’ve all told me how excited they are.”

“I’m sure they’ll be able to go swim at least one more time, don’t worry. Are you cold?” Liam seemed more concerned with Niall’s well being right now, which not only was really flattering but also gave Niall the stupidest images in his head. 

“No, I’m good.” Niall lied immediately, mostly because they were already at the cabin anyways and though he wished he had a jacket or something, he didn’t have one and Liam didn’t either, so.

The older man didn’t seem to believe him though, and Niall actually had no time at all to prepare for it, all he knew was that one second they were just walking next to each other and then the next Liam had suddenly caught Niall’s hand in the movement, holding onto it and almost giving the younger man a bloody heart attack. “Your fingers are cold.”

“Yeah, um… but I’m fine.” Niall choked out, grateful for the darkness though.

Apparently he had given Liam mixed signals because he only held on for another second before Niall felt his grip becoming lose, so obviously he held on tighter, out of panic, and there was a quiet laugh that escaped Liam right before he properly held Niall’s hand. At least for the last few meters before they had reached their cabin. 

As usual, Liam let Niall use the shower first, and the younger man made sure to brush his teeth a little longer, for no reason of course. It was kinda torture to sit on his bed after and wait for Liam to be done as well, thinking about every possible way to initiate something but not coming up with anything smart.

Luckily, Liam was a lot better at this than Niall was. At least under pressure.

“Look at this.” He just casually let himself fall on the bed next to Niall, showing him something on his phone, with apparently no intention of getting up again anytime soon. Good.

“Did Louis send you that?” Niall tried to laugh, but he was actually just trying not to freak out on the inside from the way Liam’s arm was pressing up against his own as they were both leaning against Niall’s bunched up pillow.

“Yeah, seems like he won’t be back for a while. And I can’t even answer him, the signal is gone again.” Louis had just sent some picture of a very empty train station, with no taxi in sight, and honestly, it was kinda completely irrelevant and Niall wondered if Liam had just shown it to him so he could get on the bed with him. He wasn’t as desperate as Niall though, was he? 

“He’ll survive.” Niall felt a little guilty, but then again, Louis had texted Liam and not him, and what were they supposed to do about him possibly being stranded at the train station? Right, they couldn’t do anything at all. “He knew it’d be difficult to get back here in the middle of the night. Also, he sent that an hour ago, he’s probably on his way already.”

“True.” And then Liam just shrugged before putting his phone on Niall’s bedside table, as if it was his own, not moving another inch though. “I was thinking… “

“Yeah?” Niall asked, already a little breathless upon all the endless possibilities.

“Do you want two share two groups again tomorrow?” Oh.

“Yeah. Sure.” This was nice, but not exactly what Niall had hoped to hear right now, and he tried to hide his disappointment but it seemed to not be working so well.

“You don’t sound so excited.” Liam let out a laugh, so Niall quickly cleared his throat and put up a smile, but it was too late anyways.

“I am excited.” He WAS, it’s just…

“Mhm.” Was all Liam made, a smirk on his face when he suddenly sat up a bit more straight and now Niall definitely knew that the older man had just been teasing him because he seemed to know exactly what Niall wanted anyways, what they were kinda dancing around. 

“I am.” Niall confirmed, a bit more firmly, but it just made Liam laugh again, and the younger man would’ve pretended to be upset had he not gotten stuck staring at Liam’s face, the way his eyes crinkled up when he laughed, the way just looking at him made Niall feel breathless. “You’re so stupid.”

“I’m your boss.” Liam just said it in between laughter, and Niall rolled his eyes, trying not to smile because seeing Liam amused instantly put him in a good mood as well. 

“So? Does that mean you won’t pay me?” He joked, not having meant for it to come out that way, but it still had. And apparently, Liam didn’t mind it at all.

“Oh, I’m gonna pay you.” He promised, and before Niall could have said anything else, Liam had already leaned closer, still with a smile on his face, making the younger’s breath hitch.

Liam did wait again for Niall to pull away or stop him before kissing him, which Niall obviously did not do, and it was completely out of nowhere but yet so soft and somehow even better than in Niall’s memory. They hadn’t kissed since this morning, which already felt like eternity, but more importantly, they hadn’t ever kissed with no fear of anybody catching or hearing them. So that added a whole new excitement to it all.

Niall ended up on his back in no time, and he couldn’t even recall how it had happened, or how they had done it without breaking the kiss. It was slow for now, with clearly no intention at all although Niall was really trying here not to get too turned on by Liam’s weight on top of him, and the way his tongue was moving so in sync with his own as if they had done this a billion times before. And not like, three.

Liam continued placing kisses down Niall’s neck when they broke apart for air and Niall twisted his finger’s in the older’s hair, a million thoughts crossing his mind all at once. Most of all how fucking good Liam’s lips felt against his skin, how he still actually couldn’t believe that they were doing this right now, right here, that someone like Liam could have feelings for Niall. And after everything that had happened.

“Niall.” The older boy half whispered as he leaned up and Niall wanted to whine about him stopping the kisses. “Open your eyes.”

“Hm, why?” Niall slowly blinked them open only to see Liam’s face just centimeters above his, shivers all over his body when the older man brushed his fingers across his cheek, thumb touching Niall’s bottom lip as he smiled.

“You’d tell me if I did something you didn’t like, right?” He sounded quite serious about it, and Niall hesitated for a moment but just because he was surprised.

“Yeah… but I don’t think there’s anything you could do I didn’t like.” Kinda embarrassing but it was the truth anyways. Still, now that they were at this point, Niall felt like adding something else, just so Liam knew, even if it was hard doing it while looking straight at him. “I, um… I’ve not been with so many guys, like… just so you know.”

“Okay, doesn’t matter. Neither have I.” Oh. 

“Good… I mean, good because then I won’t look like an idiot.” Niall laughed a bit nervously, which Liam seemed to take noticed of because he closed the small gap between them momentarily, kissing Niall in a way that actually calmed him down a little bit. 

“You wouldn’t look like an idiot either ways.” Liam promised, his lips still brushing Niall’s as the younger man wrapped his arms around Liam’s neck to keep him closer, suddenly wanting all of him at once, but he kept it together for now.

They kept snogging for a while, it might have as well been hours, Niall didn’t know, he just knew that he never wanted to stop and never wanted to actually question what they were doing or how this would go on. When Liam moved his hand down, Niall did feel nervousness arising in his chest but it was mixed with excitement at the same time. Plus, Liam didn’t really do anything other than pushing Niall’s shirt up a bit higher between them to caress his skin.

It’d be a lie to say that Niall wasn’t getting all hot and bothered from the snogging and the touching and he could feel Liam growing hard against him in return as their kisses turned a bit more desperate, and Liam’s hand slipped higher, the constant pressure of the older’s weight not exactly helping with any of that. 

It was kinda embarrassing really, how fast Niall got to the point of no return, just pushing every worry away as Liam was rubbing against him while still licking into his mouth, Niall’s lunges screaming for air. There was nothing at all audible except their heavy breathing, the occasional sigh that escaped either of them whenever they stopped kissing for just a second, and the bedsheets moving underneath them.

“Liam… “ Niall breathlessly brought out at some point, not knowing how else to say what he wanted, but luckily, the older man seemed to get it.

They had to stop snogging for a second so Liam had enough space to just pull down Niall’s sweats, and his boxer shorts with it, just enough to free his aching erection and the younger man had no time to be nervous or stare at Liam when he did the same to himself. Kissing again with no fabric covering their crotches was so much more intense that Niall thought he’d come the second Liam’s dick was brushing against his.

But he didn’t, he managed to hold on for another few seconds, until Liam pushed a hand in between them while his tongue was literally fucking Niall’s mouth, getting his fist around both of them. 

The bed was small and it was hot and Liam’s mouth slipped from Niall’s as he slowly jerked them off at the same time, rubbing them together while Niall held on for dear life. Their breaths were mixing because of how close they still were, Liam’s sweaty forehead pressed against Niall’s, his quiet moans and grunts only making it harder for Niall to hold back.

Liam’s palm was soft but a little rough, and the added pressure of their dicks trapped in Liam’s fist plus the fact that no one had touched Niall in what felt like forever, it was just way too much. He didn’t even have time to warn Liam, didn’t have time to do anything at all in fact except moan and tug on the older’s hair as he came between them and Liam’s wrist movements sped up a little as he followed close behind.

It was so fucking good although it didn’t last that long, but Niall still felt way out of breath when he slowly came down from his high, pulling Liam’s head back down so they could kiss some more afterwards, slowly and gently. They had really just done it in a cabin in the damn woods, like some horny teenagers, and yet Niall was pretty sure he could’ve gone again in just a couple of minutes.

“Fuck… “ It was barely just a breath that Liam escaped, but Niall still heard it, almost getting him worried for a second.

“What?” He whispered back, against the older’s lips, still holding him close because he didn’t think he’d physically manage to separate from him any time soon.

“I like you so much… “ Liam mumbled somewhere against Niall’s skin, but it was enough to give Niall goosebumps, his stomach growing warm when they kissed again. 

“I really like you too, Li… “ He did, a lot more than he should have, a lot more than was appropriate and it was a little bit scary, but not so much when Liam was still on top of him and they were making out.

\--------------------

Liam didn’t know what it was, but after that night, he had even more trouble staying away from Niall, and at least it was very mutual, because he genuinely wouldn’t have known what to do with his feelings otherwise. And good thing Liam could switch around the schedules whatever way he pleased because there was no way he’d waste the last two weeks working most days away from the younger man. 

And screw whoever noticed.

“I don’t know if this is a good idea.” Niall was chuckling while saying it though, and Liam still felt him smiling against his lips when they kissed, briefly and yet longer than they should have. The kids were busy right now, so Liam had decided that they might as well take a quick “bathroom” break. 

“Do you want me to stop?” Liam asked, already knowing the answer when Niall wrapped his arms around his neck, leaning against the wall as he shook his head with a smirk, right before leaning in again so they could kiss some more. This definitely wasn’t a good idea. “You taste like candy… “

“I’ve been eating it whenever you weren’t looking.” The younger man laughed softly against Liam’s mouth, rubbing their noses together and Liam stepped in even closer, crowding Niall against the wall as he moved his hands up and down the younger’s hips. 

“How have you still got anything left?” Seriously, Niall must have taken an entire bag full of candy because Liam saw him eating it so often. 

“I’ve been trading with the kids.” It sounded like a joke, though Liam was pretty sure it wasn’t one, but he just shook his head a bit, feeling a smile forming on his lips as he leaned in again. He’d never get enough of kissing Niall, even if they kinda had to do it in secret, but it was always worth it because at night, they were free to do whatever the hell they pleased inside their cabin.

They had never gone further than getting each other off using their hands or just rubbing against one another, but it had also only been 3 days since the first time they had done anything at all. Also, Liam was pretty sure Niall also didn’t have any lube and condoms with him, so like… that would’ve been a problem. Unless they would have asked Louis for some, but that would’ve ended in a literal disaster.

“Niall… “ Liam mumbled as they were still kinda kissing, keeping his eyes closed so he could remember the moment better, slipping his hands underneath the younger’s shirt to feel him.

“Yeah?” Niall breathed, fingers bunched up in Liam’s hair, making sure his head stayed right where Niall wanted it. He always got really touchy and clingy whenever he had the chance, and Liam absolutely loved it, especially when they went to sleep together, somehow managing to squeeze into one of those tiny beds, and Niall would wrap himself all around Liam, as if he was a teddy bear or something.

“We should go back… “ As much as Liam hated to say it, they had already been gone for far too long. 

“Hmm… but kiss me again… “ Niall begged, so obviously, Liam did not have a choice but to give in, did he? Pretty sure it would’ve physically hurt him to reject the younger man whenever he wanted a kiss.

In the end, they came back to the kids fighting, but Liam didn’t even care just one bit. No one had gotten hurt after all and he had gotten to be alone with Niall for a bit, his mouth still tasting like him and his lips still feeling warm and a bit swollen from all the making out and yet Liam couldn’t help but already plan on sneaking away again.

If this was how they’d spend the rest of their time here then it’d go by even more quickly than Liam was already fearing.

\---------------------

“… I’ll never manage to do this for longer than five minutes.” Niall had tried not to interrupt Liam just this one time, but he just couldn’t take it anymore after what felt like ages. Meditating was surely never going to become his thing.

“It’s not been five minutes.” Liam sounded amused, his voice calm, but he was keeping his eyes closed when Niall looked over, so he decided to just make use of that and stare a little. Even after a whole day with Liam, Niall somehow still hadn’t gotten enough of looking at him. 

“It felt like fifty though.” Niall decided to shut his mouth then though, to let Liam have his peace of mind for a little longer, instead watching the sunset for a bit. They had gotten done early today, so they had come here for some time alone, obviously some snogging, but also just to talk and enjoy each other’s company. 

Since Liam was keeping his eyes closed still, Niall tried not to get onto his nerves, but he did get bored at some point and he was also tired from being up on his feet all day, so he decided to lie down with his head in Liam’s lap, just because the rock was really uncomfortable on his head. The older man did not move at first, he just sighed when Niall kept re-arranging his position, and eventually, Liam blinked his eyes open.

“Sorry.” Niall apologized half-heartedly, not really feeling sorry when he was staring up at the older’s face. “I just didn’t want you to miss the sunset.”

“Of course.” Liam rolled his eyes, but he leaned down to peck Niall’s lips briefly before suddenly lying down as well, kinda forcing Niall to move up a bit higher so his head was on Liam’s stomach instead. “Are you getting hungry?”

“No… we can skip dinner if you want.” Niall kinda wanted to, just so they could spend some more time here. Sure, they could’ve been alone in their cabin also, but this right here was really nice as well, especially when Liam let his hand rest in between Niall’s, letting him absently play with his fingers.

“But then you’re gonna be all cranky in a couple hours.” The older man laughed, his stomach vibrating where Niall had his head and the younger man rolled his eyes, feeling a little caught though. Still, he wasn’t complaining when Liam petted his head with his free hand, leaving it there to run his fingers through Niall’s hair. “We’ve still got time.”

“I’m never cranky.” A lie, but Liam already knew that. “Only sometimes.”

They stayed quiet for a bit, just listening to the birds and the winds and it was almost like in some movie, except Niall wasn’t actually feeling so peaceful, not even with the even strokes of Liam’s fingers or the warmth of his skin through his shirt. Niall had thought about asking Harry for advice, but the signal was always so bad and somehow he felt his friend couldn’t have helped him anyways.

After all it was what it was, and even though talking about it would have maybe been a little nice, it wouldn’t have changed anything in the end. Summer was still ending and not only would Niall have to get over the fact that he wouldn’t see Liam 24/7 anymore, he’d also have to go back to his normal life at home, the one Liam didn’t even know about, and it was making Niall slightly insane.

Obviously he was still thinking about that offer Liam had made, about how Niall could stay with him for a bit if he needed to get away from home, but like… in order for that to ever happen, they would have had to talk about a lot of things first. Most of them including Niall’s lies being discovered, so like… no thanks.

“When we get back home… “ Liam started, which already caused Niall’s stomach to twist, but he kept it together for now. “Do you like… do you still wanna see me?”

“Yeah, ‘course...” Niall answered immediately, right after feeling a little sick to his stomach though. He wanted to be with Liam, so badly, but there were things that were probably going to get in the way. 

“Okay, so… we’re not like, going home and only texting once a week or something?” He sounded worried, which Niall didn’t like because god damn it, he liked Liam so fucking much it was almost driving him crazy at this point.

“No… we can text twice a week.” Niall joked, only to lighten to mood a little bit and Liam laughed. “I’m kidding, I um… I wanna see you. And talk to you and… whatever else.”

“Okay, I’m glad.” Liam did sound relieved, as if he hadn’t thought Niall would wanna be with him or something, which was ironic really because Niall was always worried about the same the other way around. 

“So… “ Niall started after a moment, kinda wanting to chicken out again but the forcing himself to continue anyways, maybe holding a bit too desperately onto Liam’s hand. “Are we like, you know… I mean… we’re not, um… seeing other people, right? Like, you don’t wanna like… just be friends that sometimes have sex and-“

“I really don’t.” Thank god. Even though Niall knew Liam wasn’t the type for that at all, he had just wanted to make sure. “I don’t wanna see anyone else.”

“Okay... good. Me neither.” Niall didn’t care what they called whatever they had, if they called it anything at all, for as long as he could be sure Liam only wanted him and no one else, and that it wouldn’t all end with the summer camp. So now he only had to figure out the 100 problems standing in the way. “I don’t even have your phone number.”

“How? I literally called you for the phone interview.” That made Liam laugh, and Niall had to smile but he was sadly speaking the truth.

“I had to delete everything off of my phone at least a thousand times since then, it’s always low on storage.” Not here though, because Niall rarely ever used his phone except for looking at the time.

“See, this is exactly what this camp is meant for. Making friends without technology.” Liam joked, and Niall let out a laugh.

“Friends, yeah?” They had kinda passed that stage, although Niall would definitely consider Liam a friend as well as… well, more than that. They could be everything at once, right?

“Very good friends.” The older man corrected himself, but it was obvious anyways that he was just kidding and Niall smiled, letting his eyes fall closed because he wanted to remember this moment for as long as somehow possible.

He wouldn’t say that he was in love with Liam yet, but then again, where exactly was the line there? And even though they might have been in some honeymoon stage and the situation they were in at the camp was very extraordinary, Niall was still thinking about Liam the entire day, even if they spent pretty much every minute together anyways. It just felt like it had been meant to be somehow, because of how randomly Louis had told Harry about this job and… god, Niall just wanted things to work out.

\----------------------

Summer was definitely coming to an end, although it was still warm enough to go swim in the lake one more time. Liam did convince Niall to come into the lake with him also and they actually ended up staying in longer than the kids, until Louis came to get them, luckily sparing himself the comments just this one time.

Niall’s leg wasn’t bothering him anymore, but Liam was pretty happy about their morning walks anyways, so they never actually went jogging again, just took walks around the lake and up to their spot and the days seemed to be flying by. They were still sneaking away multiple times during the day, and Liam was pretty sure someone must have caught them by now, but no one ever said anything, not even Louis.

Although they had kinda established that they would keep seeing each other after all this was over, Liam felt sadness overcoming him whenever he thought about going back home. And it wasn’t so much about the fact that the camp would be over, it was more that he somehow felt that Niall was unsure about it all, that he hadn’t quite made up his mind about whether he really wanted to continue what they had after the summer.

And no matter how many times Liam tried to bring it up, the younger man always reassured him that he wanted to be with him, so they never had a chance to talk about it. Maybe it was just in Liam’s mind after all? Maybe Niall didn’t wanna go back home because of his issues there that he was still unwilling to talk about, and Liam almost thought about yet again offering that Niall could stay with him if he wanted to, but he decided to give him some more time instead.

It was day 36, 6 days before everyone would leave and Liam woke up because even though the bed they shared was rather small, it still felt kinda empty. So when he tried to find Niall next to him while still half asleep, his hand only found the cold sheets. At first, he thought he was still dreaming maybe, but he felt himself coming more awake when he heard a noise next to him, so Liam slowly blinked his eyes open, trying to re orient himself because it was pitch black.

Except for Niall’s phone screen from the other bed.

“Ni… ? What’re you doin’?” Especially in the other bed, Liam’s, because they usually slept in Niall’s.

“Nothing, go back to sleep.” The younger man whispered, his voice sounding weird but Liam had also just woken up and they were being quiet. 

For a second Liam almost fell back asleep, but he gave himself a push, leaning up on his elbow. Niall had locked his phone by now, so it was dark again and Liam couldn’t see anything at all. “Lie back down with me.”

“In a second… “ Niall mumbled, and so that got Liam really worried and even though he knew that it’d hurt their eyes, he still blindly searched for the bedside table lamp, flicking it on without a warning.

“What’s going on?” Liam was trying hard to speak normally even though he was also sure he could’ve been deep asleep again just a second later. When he finally managed to keep his eyes open though and saw Niall’s face, every bit of tiredness had just washed away pretty much. “Babe, why are you crying?!”

“’m not, it’s fine.” Niall shrugged, quickly wiping his cheeks. He was sitting in the middle of Liam’s bed, his phone still in his lap although he wasn’t look at it anymore.

“It’s clearly not fine.” So Liam forced himself to get up, relieved when Niall didn’t try to stop him as he sat behind him, having to lean against the headboard because he was still exhausted, but taking the younger boy with him as he wrapped his arms around him. “What happened?”

“Nothing… “ Niall mumbled, leaning back against Liam’s chest, almost becoming limp in his arms. “It’s complicated… “

“What is?” Liam kept pushing, not sure if Niall was bothered by it, but he had been crying and there was no way in hell Liam would just let it slip and go back to sleep. He was trying to gently wipe Niall’s cheeks when the younger man turned a bit, but it was difficult in the position they were in. Also, Niall took a hold of his hand anyways, moving it away from his face and instead holding onto it. 

“It’s just… things at home… “ He answered after a moment, again just shrugging a bit, but Liam had heard the pain in his voice, could see it in the younger’s face.

“Do you wanna talk about it?” It didn’t seem like it, but Liam was really trying not to force Niall into it, kissing his temple and then his cheek and Niall didn’t seem to mind it because he only snuggled deeper into the older’s embrace. 

“I, uh… I don’t know.” He admitted, sounding torn and Liam was slowly starting to become genuinely worried about Niall’s home situation. What was going on there that was so bad that he couldn’t even talk about it?

“You don’t have to, I just thought maybe it’d make you feel better. Maybe I can help somehow.” At least Liam really wished he could.

“I don’t think you can… “ Niall answered almost immediately, clearing his throat and then sniffing a bit, which almost broke Liam’s heart. “You know how, uh, how my parents are divorced and stuff and… so my mom she… she’s alone now, obviously, um… she’s not doing so well.”

“Is she sick? Should we find somewhere with better signal to call her, do you wanna-“

“No, um… she’s not been doing well for a while. Like, mentally.” Oh. “So… my brother texted me before… “

“You have a brother?” Liam asked stupidly because it suddenly felt like there were a thousand things he didn’t even know about Niall.

“Yeah, he’s older and- anyways, he texted me and… just to tell me that our mom’s been- she’s in hospital and… since a week already and I didn’t even know and I… I just left her alone to come here and my brother is blaming m-me a-and-“

“Hey, hey, shh, it’s okay. Niall, it’s not your fault, okay? It’s not your job to take care of anyone but yourself.” The situation had escalated a bit too quickly for Liam to process it all so he was just reacting out of impulse when Niall started sobbing in his arms, just holding him tightly, and rocking them a bit. “Everything will be fine, she’s being taken care of if she’s in hospital, so it’s not a bad thing, and you’ll soon be home to visit her, if you need to you can even take the train tomorrow morning and-“

“N-No, I d-don’t w-want to.” Niall half sobbed, and Liam didn’t know what else to say because it was obvious Niall was in no mental state to continue this conversation, he was just crying into Liam’s neck now, sitting sideways between his legs almost like a child while the older man was doing his very best trying to somehow calm him.

It didn’t really work, and Liam never found out that night what was really going on, he was just relieved when he got Niall to lie down with him again, promising he’d stay awake until Niall had fallen asleep as well and so the younger man basically cried himself to sleep in Liam’s arms. 

Needless to say, Liam didn’t get any sleep that night, he thought about texting Louis to give him Harry’s number, but then decided it would’ve invaded Niall’s privacy. If he didn’t wanna talk about any of it then Liam couldn’t force or push him to, he also couldn’t just tell Harry and Louis about it because he wanted Niall to trust him, but he also wanted to be there for him and make him feel better and he felt pretty damn helpless not being able to do either.

\------------------------

Niall felt more than embarrassed about what had happened that night, so the next morning when he woke up before Liam, he went to wash his face and told himself to just keep it together, and not think about it anymore because there was absolutely nothing he could have done anyways. And he wanted to avoid being asked any questions at absolute any costs.

Of course Liam was being all sweet once he was awake also, asking Niall how he felt and stuff, so because Niall had already messed up so many times, he started telling more lies. How his mother was already feeling better, how he had made up with his brother, how he had just been emotional and tired last night, and that he was sorry Liam had had to put up with it.

No idea if Liam bought any of that, but he sure as hell didn’t ask any more question, he just hugged Niall really tightly, telling him that he was always there if the younger man needed someone to talk to, that he could trust him and that Liam would never want him to feel bad. Niall believed him, but it didn’t change anything.

They were on day 37 out of 42 at this point, and everyone was talking about going home, all the kids were excited to see their parents again, and their siblings and dogs and whatnot, and all Niall could do was smile, and steal glances at Liam thinking how he was about to ruin absolutely everything. 

Wouldn’t have been the first time, just in all new ways.

\------------------------------------

“Are you sure you got my number saved now?” Liam was only joking a bit when he hugged Niall yet again, not quite sure how he’d ever let him go again. He had to stay longer at the camp and sort out some stuff, wait until really everyone was gone, and Niall had told him he’d stay with him and they’d go back home together, but Liam knew that the semester at uni was starting and that Niall wanted to see his mother, so he had insisted that the younger man went home with Louis.

“I’ve got it. And if not you’ve still got mine. And my email address, and we both have Louis’ number.” Niall promised, laughing a bit in Liam’s arms, but his face was sad when they pulled apart. They had already said goodbye in private, not now with all the kids being picked up by busses or parents. Louis was still not done packing apparently, so Liam was waiting for Niall, saying goodbye to a lot of the kids because they came over to hug Niall and beg him to come back next summer. 

“Okay, just making sure. You have to tell me when you get on the train, and once you’re home, okay?” Somehow it was making Liam anxious even though he knew Niall was an adult and perfectly capable of living his own life, but he had been around him pretty much all day for so long that it was hard to imagine not having him here. Or knowing he’d see him again in a couple hours.

“I will. You have to tell me when you’re on your train as well. When are you gonna be home? At night?” The younger man was still standing so close to Liam that it would’ve been easy to just lean in and kiss him, right here in front of everyone, but of course Liam didn’t do that, he just kept his arm around Niall, but that was it. Okay, and occasionally he touched his hair, pretending to sort it out a bit. 

“Probably, yeah, unless there are any delays… you have to tell me how your mom’s doing.” Apparently better since days already, but the slight switch in Niall’s expression immediately told Liam that something wasn’t right here. At this point, he even considered that maybe all of it was made up. Not that he didn’t trust Niall, if he was lying there had to be a good reason, just… what was it?

“I will. I’m sure she can go home soon.” He actually sounded quite cheerful saying it, but right after he hugged Liam again, hiding his face and holding on so tightly as if they were saying goodbye forever. “I’ll miss you… “

“We can see each other tomorrow or the day after. I gotta show you my place. And I don’t start work until next week.” Liam had already told him all of that, so that the younger boy knew that that he definitely wanted to see him and be with him. It was strange really, going from hanging out 24/7 to going back to lives that they had never lived with each other in it. 

“Okay… I’ll still miss you.” Niall told him, but not in a joking way at all, so Liam held on tighter as well, pressing his lips against the younger’s shoulder because no one was looking at them anyways. And if they were then whatever.

“I’ll miss you too, Nialler.” Just for that one night Liam would have to spend alone in his bed at home. If possible Liam would try and get Niall over to his place tonight even, but he wasn’t suggesting it yet just because he wanted the younger man to have enough time to sort things out with his family, go see his mother and not stress about Liam right now. It seemed he had a lot to stress out over already anyways. 

They kept holding onto each other, until Louis arrived and kinda made them jump apart. He had a pretty dumb smile on his face, but he didn’t say anything, just hugged Liam goodbye also and then made a joke about how he’d cover his eyes if they needed to do something more private. 

It was hard watching Niall getting in the car and seeing it drive off because even though they literally lived in the same city at home, not even far apart at all, Liam had a feeling things wouldn’t go as smoothly as he wanted them to go.

And sadly, his suspicions turned out to be very correct.

\--------------------

“I need Harry’s number.” Liam had decided that he didn’t care anymore, that even though he respected Niall’s privacy and whatnot, he just couldn’t take it any longer.

“For what? Why aren’t you asking Niall for it?” Louis seemed very confused, his mouth half full with food. It was Monday, a week after the camp had ended, and they had met up in their lunch breaks because they were both back at work. 

“I can’t. It’s about him.” And it was driving Liam the fuck insane.

The thing was, he hadn’t seen Niall since that day they had said goodbye at the camp, sure they had texted a whole ton, and talked on the phone in the beginning, but somehow Niall always had excuses over excuses on why they couldn’t meet up. And Liam didn’t know what to do, he had thought already that maybe Niall had decided he wanted this to end, but then the next second he was texting Liam heart emojis and telling him how much he missed him and… it was very contradicting.

And since Liam couldn’t just be a crazy person and turn up at Niall’s uni and wait for him, he had to ask Harry because he simply could not take this anymore. Something was going on, with Niall or his family or both, and Liam needed to know.

“I’m pretty sure he loves you.” Louis said with his mouth full, all casual, and Liam was both confused but also feeling a little hot all of a sudden, not knowing what to say. “Oh. Is it about something else?”

“Have you talked to Harry about Niall, or… ?” Liam ignored the other part, because Louis could hardly be a judge of whether Niall… _loved_ Liam or not. Right? 

“Occasionally. I mean I haven’t seen Niall or anything, but Harry has and-“

“When?” Liam interrupted, although to be fair he couldn’t be mad that Harry was probably in the loop and knew exactly what was going on with Niall, which was why he needed to talk to him about this because by now Liam had realized that Niall would never tell him the truth himself.

“I don’t know, couple days ago. Why? Surely you and Niall meet up all the time also, right? I mean, the way you were hugging him on the last day… “ Louis then winked at Liam, and the other man had to hold back a sigh, a wave of sadness overcoming him.

“Can I just have Harry’s number?” He asked again, ignoring all the rest, and Louis rolled his eyes but he agreed, jokingly warning Liam to keep his hands off of him because he had Niall for that. If he had known how much salt he was pouring into the wound right now, he wouldn’t have said this surely, so Liam couldn’t even be mad.

Liam waited to call Harry until it was evening and he was home alone, thinking about just texting instead but then deciding that this was the better way. He also knew Harry wasn’t with Louis tonight and although Louis had surely told him about Liam asking for his number, at least no one else would be listening in on this conversation. 

“Hi, Liam.” Harry picked up the phone as if he had expected the call, as if he had already had Liam’s number saved in his phone and… well, maybe he had, if Louis had talked to him, which he probably had.

“Hi, sorry if I’m bothering you or something, we can also talk another time or-“

“No worries, now is good.” Thank god because Liam would have gone insane otherwise. “I was kinda waiting for you to call me if I’m being honest.”

“Did Louis tell you I asked you for your number?” He had had to, and now Liam felt slightly stupid, as if they were all still in high school, but like… 

“That too, but also because of Niall.” Oh. “I know what you’re gonna ask.”

“I, um… I don’t wanna do this behind Niall’s back.” Liam started, because it was the truth, but he also felt like Niall wasn’t leaving him a choice anymore. He had asked, multiple times, about what was going on, and Niall just never said anything, or talked himself out of it, or made excuses. 

“We’re not, I told him you’d probably come to me if he keeps avoiding telling you, so… he knows.” Wait…

“But he doesn’t wanna tell me himself? Why?” Okay, that did hurt Liam, but he also felt like he actually had no right to feel hurt here because he didn’t even know what was going on yet.

“He’s scared you’re gonna be mad. I told him that’s ridiculous, but… “ That WAS ridiculous. “I’m not sure if he wants me to tell you, but I’m gonna do it anyways because I’m kinda getting tired of it as well. And I know you really like him and you’re good for him, and I want you guys to be happy.”

“Okay… thank you.” Liam didn’t know what else to say, he was a little taken aback and stunned that Harry seemed to know exactly what was, or had been, going on between Niall and Liam. And that he seemed to have kept it from Louis luckily, leaving it up to Liam to tell him himself. “So what’s going on with his mom, what is she in hospital for? And his brother? Or does he have trouble at uni? I just… I don’t even know anymore what’s even going on, he always has excuses as to why we can’t see each other and… I don’t fucking know what to do anymore.”

“Okay, well, first of all… “ Harry started, and then he took a deep breath, and Liam was kinda expecting to hear anything at all now. But he was still surprised. “Niall doesn’t go to uni. And his mother is at home.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i am so sorry it took this long for me to get this chapter up, its been a tough few days and i barely had time for anything at all. i dont know yet if the next chapter will be the last one or not, i gotta see how it goes first!
> 
> i hope you enjoyed this one & that youre doing well! im looking forward to my day off tomorrow and i will try my best to finish this fic as soon as i can! thank you for all the support <3


	5. Chapter 5

“Hey, you- wait, what was your name again? Something with an A, right?” One of Niall’s colleagues kinda made him flinch terribly by showing up out of nowhere, but he was kinda used to it by now.

“Niall.” He told the other guy, resisting the urge to point to his damn name tag that they were all forced for wear. Somehow he truly felt like they were doing this on purpose.

“Right. Yeah. You need to do aisle 6 again, some kid literally threw half the things on the floor. And try to be faster than last time, okay?” So Niall just nodded, even though he wanted to fucking scream inside. It was better than cleaning up dog poop, which he had had to do on his very first day, so that was something… right?

All Niall wanted to do was go home, but then again, he actually also didn’t wanna be home, but he also didn’t wanna be at work, so it was really a never ending cycle, and if he was being honest with himself, then there was only one thing he truly wanted. And he couldn’t have it, even though the only one standing in the way of it was he himself.

It was crazy really, how much time seemed to have passed since the camp, since Niall had seen Liam in real life, and at the rate they were going the older man was going to be ready to end things between them any day now. Even if it had only been a bit over a week, but it felt like eternity to Niall. 

He wanted to see Liam, more than anything in the world right now, but Niall had never been good at confrontation, and there would have been a whole ton of it the very moment they saw each other and he really wanted to figure a few things out and think it all through and… well, if Niall was being honest then the truth was he was afraid, simple as that.

Afraid that Liam would be so pissed that he’d break up with Niall on the spot. So instead Niall just waited and lied just so Liam would probably break up with him anyways. Smart.

While doing aisle 6 again, after the first initial shock and realizing how long it would take to clean everything up, Niall basically questioned every decision he had ever made in his life. It wasn’t even that the job was so terrible, or that his colleagues weren’t that nice, it was just everything at once, like… there wasn’t one thing Niall was looking forward to right now, which wasn’t only frustrating but also sad.

Niall’s shift would be over in like an hour or something, so he actually tried to hurry it up a bit, at the same time not wanting to be too fast because he didn’t even wanna know what his next task after that would be. At least he didn’t have to work the closing shift again, probably because he had done everything wrong last time, which sounded like a good tactic, but would most likely lead to him being fired soon.

About halfway through, Niall kinda turned his brain off, tried to just do his job and get it done, kinda completely forgetting where he even was. So naturally, he dropped everything he had been holding when he was addressed again, with the right name this time though.

“Niall?”

“Yeah, I’m almost d-“ Niall started, spinning around and thinking he’d be yelled at, only to think he was starting to hallucinate. “Done. Umm… “

“Hi.” The thing was, Liam didn’t even look surprised or anything, he was keeping his distance though, the entire store quiet and just some weird music playing quietly in the background and Niall kinda forgot to close his mouth, not a single excuse entering his brain. He was screwed, and at the same time he just wanted to throw himself at Liam. “… are you okay? Sorry if I scared you, I didn’t wanna-“

“No, no, you didn’t, umm… “ Niall lied, quickly starting to pick up random things off of the floor, his cheeks turning hot as hell and suddenly he felt like the biggest idiot. Suddenly it felt like the last few weeks at the camp hadn’t ever happened and Liam was still just this really good looking guy Niall had a massive crush on. “I just, uh… I didn’t… I didn’t think you’d, um… “

“I’m sorry for just coming by, I… I talked to Harry.” So then Niall dropped everything yet again. _Fuck_. “Do you need help?”

“No, I don’t, I- I can’t. I have to, like, get this done or I’ll be fired and- Liam, I… “ Niall didn’t know what the hell to say, at the same time terrified his boss would walk by, but also not wanting Liam to leave and fuck, if he had talked to Harry then… then did he know… _everything?_

“Yeah, ‘course, sorry. I can like- when is your shift over?” Liam quickly asked, having come a bit closer, but still standing way too far away for Niall to stop blushing. 

“Uh, in an hour, b-“

“I’ll wait for you. Okay? … unless you don’t wanna talk?” He sounded unsure, and Niall shook his head, but then he nodded, not really fully there right now because he was still so shocked. And terrified.

“No, yeah, of course I wanna talk.” More than anything, even if it’d lead to all of his lies being discovered and- but if Liam had talked to Harry, and Harry had told him where Niall worked then surely Liam knew a lot more as well and shit, Harry had told Niall he’d do this if Liam ever asked, Niall had just never thought that it would actually ever happen. “But you really don’t have to wait an hour, I can-“

“I will, don’t worry about it.” And then Liam smiled, kind of a sad smile really but it still made Niall’s heart stop and he had no time to react when the older man walked up to him, lightly putting his hand on the small of Niall’s back before kissing his cheek, lips barely touching skin. “I missed you…” 

“I missed you too…” Niall whispered back, or chocked more like, grabbing a hold of Liam’s fingers for just a second when the other man let go of him, and then Liam was walking away and Niall was left with a beating heart and a billion questions.

A moment passed by where Niall was alone, not moving, trying to clear his thoughts, but he wasn’t allowed to do so. “Who was that? He just walked in and out again.”

“No one. I don’t know.” Niall quickly lied to his colleague, starting to pick up items again that needed to be sorted out and all of a sudden, time couldn’t go by quickly enough.

Of course Niall tried to use the time to think about what to actually say to Liam, but it was rather difficult because he didn’t even know what Liam knew from his conversation with Harry, and Harry hadn’t even bothered warning Niall and all of it was overshadowed by Niall’s euphoria of seeing Liam again. Feeling his touch and his lips, even just briefly.

“There’s some guy outside since an hour already, maybe we should call the cops.” After clocking out, Niall overheard his other two coworkers talking, and he had to bite his tongue as he interrupted their conversation. 

“I know him, it’s fine.” _That’s my boyfriend_, Niall added in his head, something he had never actually said out loud, and never discussed with Liam either. “See you tomorrow.”

“Yeah… bye.” They both seemed a little confused, but they did say bye to Niall and Niall had kinda already forgotten about them the moment he walked out of the store, getting hit by pretty cold wind but it only bothered him for a second. 

“Hi… I’m sorry you had to wait so long.”

“No worries, it didn’t even feel like an hour.” Liam shrugged, pushing away from the wall as he came over to Niall and the younger man could barely even look at him. “Can I drive you home?”

“Umm… if you want to.” Because Niall was about to miss the bus anyways, but he hadn’t been thinking about that for even just a second. He didn’t even want to go home. 

“I really want to.” The older man told him, smiling, and Niall hated how awkward everything between them seemed to be, as if months had passed and not just a week, as if they hadn’t shared a bed just a couple days ago and snogged before going to sleep. 

Niall had no idea what Liam’s car looked like, so he just kinda followed the other man across the parking lot, a thousand questions and worries filling his head and he honestly couldn’t even believe that Liam was still talking to him. Because by now, he must have known about all the lies. 

They didn’t talk anymore until they reached the car, but for the last few meters, Liam caught Niall’s hand in his own, giving it a squeeze and almost giving Niall a heart attack. 

The moment they had both gotten into the car, and Liam had told Niall he could just chuck his bag on the backseat, the silence got a lot more apparent, and Liam didn’t even make intentions of starting the engine. Niall felt like he was supposed to say something, but he truly did not know what or where to even start, so he just ended up saying nothing at all, somewhere in the back of his head thinking about how expensive Liam’s car looked like.

“I’m sorry I talked to Harry behind your back.” Liam started after a moment, and Niall just nodded, wanting to say that it was fine, that he got it, but Liam continued. “He told me not to show up at your work. But then he told me exactly where you work anyways.”

“Um, it’s fine.” Niall was kinda glad that he had right now, even though he was still a little scared. “What, um… what did he like… tell you?”

“A few things, not everything. He said you’d probably wanna tell me yourself.” Thank god for that, but also not because now chances were Liam would still get upset. “… for example where you got this from.”

“Wha- oh.” Niall flinched just a bit when Liam unexpectedly reached out to touch the bruise underneath his eye, ever so gently, but the look on his face was pained. “It’s… it’s complicated.”

“I got time.” Liam promised, and Niall took a breath as he looked away, feeling his hands shaking a bit until the older man dropped his arm to cover Niall’s hands with his own. “You don’t have to tell me anything, you know, but I can’t continue like last week… I truly am sorry that I talked to Harry about you, I just didn’t know what else to do and I don’t wanna force you to talk to me but I care about you and I wanna be with you and… I was under the impression you do, too.”

“I do wanna be with you… “ Niall mumbled, staring down at their hands, Liam’s thumb brushing over his skin. “I’m sorry… “

“You don’t have to be.” He sounded genuine, but they both knew that Niall had a LOT to be sorry for. He just didn’t know if Liam already knew how much. 

There was more silence between them, and Niall was just glad that Liam had parked his car so far away from the entrance of the store right now and while watching everything get darker outside and the wind shaking up the trees, Niall decided he’d drive them both crazy if he stayed quiet for much longer.

“I, um… I did go to uni.” Niall started, because he just didn’t know where else to start, so saying the most obvious thing first seemed appropriate. “Up until last semester, I… I wasn’t doing so good though, and I messed up a lot of exams and like, I never showed up and- I was kinda forced to take a break, so… my mom wasn’t happy about that and… yeah, so I had to get a job over the summer of course, kinda last minute, and your camp, it was basically the only option and… I don’t know why I lied about uni, I just… I just did and then I couldn’t take it back anymore and… and I was embarrassed as well and… yeah. I’m sorry.”

“You don’t have to be embarrassed, Ni.” Liam promised, not sounding upset or surprised though so that was probably what Harry had already told him. 

“Yeah, but… I am.” Niall let out a quick, humorless laugh before taking another breath, holding a bit too tightly onto Liam’s hand. “… um, my mom, she… she was only in hospital, for like, a day.”

“Is she doing better?” Well, about that… 

“Not really, uh… she’s not been doing so well for a while, like… “ Well, now Niall was kinda getting to the deep stuff, the stuff Harry had probably left out. “Because of my dad, but like… it’s more mentally, and the divorce and stuff and… and my brother kinda lost it because I went to the camp and left our mom home alone, but at the same time he’s not come home for months either and- and he moved out the second he got the chance to, when he was old enough and… and he kinda left me there, when I was 11. He’s 7 years older, so… “

“Niall… “ Liam started after a second, and Niall realized that nothing of what he had said was probably making a lot of sense to the older man right now, because he had kinda left out the most significant part of it all. It’s just… Niall had never really said it out loud, except to Harry. “Where’s that bruise from?”

“My brother.” Niall blurted out without thinking, almost instantly feeling tension going through Liam’s arm. “I… I was waiting for it to heal, that’s why I was making all these excuses why we couldn’t meet up and- and I didn’t know what to say or where to start and I didn’t want you to get mad at me for lying and I’m sorry I did, I just… everything is a mess and I just- I can’t fix it…”

“Ni… your brother… _hits_ you?” Of course that was the part Liam focused on, and Niall truly did not wanna continue right now, but if he was opening up about things, then he needed to open up about everything for it to make sense.

“He only did it once, he kinda… he lost it, right when I came home a week ago. I mean, we fought a lot as kids, as kids do and… and it did get violent sometimes but- it’s nothing, it’s fine, he’s already left again, it’s… my dad he, uh… he used to hit us, when we were kids and… and when my brother left I was the only target left sort of and… it only got worse. He also… he hit my mom too… “ Saying it out loud almost made Niall cry, but he was trying his hardest to keep it together. “I told her to leave him, but she was scared and she didn’t want to… and I gave up at some point, I was kinda- I was angry at her too, I know it’s wrong but she never said anything when he hit me or- or whatever, she always watched and- she did, like… she hit me too, sometimes, when I was younger of course. Um… my dad was the one who filed for a divorce in the end, he found someone else… so now it’s me and my mom and my mom’s not doing well at all, but I just- I needed something to do over the summer, so I took the job, I wanted to get away and not think and- and now I just took the first job that accepted me…”

“Niall, that’s- I don’t know what to say.” Of course he didn’t, but he was still holding Niall’s hand and Niall was afraid of the moment he’d let go, so he only held on tighter, choking back a few tears that were about to escape. 

“You don’t have to say anything… I know it was wrong of me to leave her at home, but she said she didn’t even care, we don’t get along that well either, and I didn’t think she’d call my brother the moment she felt bad… she didn’t call me all summer. She checked herself into hospital, but they only kept her for a day and- I always thought that things would get better once my dad is gone… but it only made her worse… “ Of course Niall knew why, because his mother loved this man that had abused them for years and years, and even now Niall wasn’t allowed to speak badly of him. “I know she needs therapy, or someone to talk to, but… I just- I don’t know what to do. She shuts me out whenever I try to talk to her, if I hadn’t taken this job at the store, she would’ve probably already kicked me out and- I don’t know what to do and I couldn’t tell you because I was afraid of losing you and… I’m sorry I lied and pushed you away and… I’d understand if you were mad… “

“Why on earth would I be mad?!” Oh. “Niall, look at me.”

So Niall did, even though he was a little nervous, especially when Liam pulled his hand away, but he only did it to cup the younger’s face, kinda forcing him to keep looking at him, his touch making Niall’s skin hot.

“You have nothing to be sorry for. _I_ am sorry for pushing you to tell me, and asking all these questions and contacting Harry and- I had no idea it was this bad, I am so sorry.” Okay, now why did he look like he was about to cry?! “Ni, it’s not your responsibility to take care of your mom, especially if she’s treating you that way. And your brother has no right to hit you, and your dad-“

“I know... I know all of that, but it’s still my family. And I still feel bad.” And Niall would continue to feel bad, even though it wasn’t his fault, and deep down he knew that too but sometimes it still felt that way. “I live in the same apartment as my mom, I can’t move out and I can’t go back to uni for at least a year and- it’s just the way it is now… I, um… I lied to you because… well, because I was embarrassed but also because, like… I was kinda excited to get away from home, and kinda pretend my life isn’t as messed up as it is and then I- I started liking you way more than I thought and all this happened and I couldn’t just be like, oh hey by the way, everything was a lie, but I knew you’d find out eventually when we got back home, so I didn’t know what to do and- well, you know the rest… “

“I’m sorry if I made you feel like you couldn’t talk to me about any of this… and that you’d ever think I’d get upset because of it.” He was still cupping Niall’s face, thumb just barely touching the bruise underneath Niall’s eye and when he let go again, the younger man almost instantly missed his touch. “And I’m sorry you have to go through all this, I… I wish I could do something to help.”

“You don’t have to be sorry, I- I already feel a lot better now that we talked… I really did miss you… “ Niall said the last part only after lowering his eyes, but he truly meant it. It almost felt like the biggest knot ever had been tied up in his stomach and suddenly it was gone, suddenly it felt as if he’d somehow be able to deal with absolutely everything. 

“I really missed you too, love. You had me worried for a bit that you didn’t actually wanna see me anymore… “ Liam let out a soft laugh, only for a second, and Niall felt a smile tugging on his lips as he forced himself to look up again. He had wanted to see Liam so badly for the past week, and now that he was right here, he couldn’t waste the time by not looking at him. 

“You’ll never have to worry about that… “ Niall promised with a small shrug, feeling his face getting a bit hot but he was trying to just play it cool. “Can I… can I kiss you?”

“You don’t need to ask.” Liam’s smile had grown wider and Niall didn’t have to be told twice because kissing Liam was something he had been craving almost all day every day since they had said goodbye at the camp.

It still felt familiar, all of it, Liam’s touch, his lips, his tongue, the way he smelled, and sure, it had only been a couple days, but to Niall it had felt like fucking eternity. 

Kissing in the car was a little unpractical, but Niall didn’t care, he kept his arms wrapped tightly around Liam’s neck, keeping him as close as somehow possible as they snogged, wishing they could’ve been even closer, or just never have to pull apart again. 

“Do you… do you actually wanna go home?” Liam whispered, their lips still brushing and Niall kept his eyes closed as he played with the older’s hair, not having to even think about that question.

“No… “ He hadn’t wanted to go home even before Liam had shown up, so now he wanted to go even less. And it’s also not like anybody was waiting for him there, his mother was still at work also, and once she got home, she would be happy to see Niall gone anyways. 

“Do you by any chance wanna see my place?” So when Liam offered that, Niall couldn’t help the smile forming on his lips, the excitement bubbling in his stomach over finally getting to do what they had planned for a week already.

“Maybe.” He teased right before kissing Liam some more, now without the tiny worry in the back of his head about having to part again soon.

\-------------------

Liam was watching Niall sleep with a smile on his face but also a million worries in his head. He had shown Niall his place, and then made him dinner because he himself hadn’t eaten either because he had come straight from work. It had all been as if nothing had ever happened between them, as if they were still at the camp but without the barely noticeable tension about having to go back home. 

They had landed in Liam’s bed a bit quicker than anticipated, but obviously Liam had had nothing against that in any way. He had missed Niall so much it had hurt, had been nervous as hell to actually show up at his work, afraid of what the younger man was going to tell him. Or IF he even wanted to tell Liam anything at all.

So now Liam was relieved that it had had nothing to do with him at all, but also worried because how in god’s name was he going to help Niall? He couldn’t just ignore his family situation, or his whole life situation more like, and though it seemed as if Niall didn’t actually wanna discuss it anymore… there had to be something Liam could do to help.

He was tracing patterns on Niall’s bare back while the younger man slept, barely touching his skin, afraid to wake him but unable to already sleep himself. Seeing Niall here, in his own bed right next to him, it was a lot more than Liam had hoped would have come of this day. He had almost not gone to the store Niall worked at, feeling it was invasion of privacy, just like talking to Harry had been. But then again, they were here as a result, so Liam didn’t regret it.

_Harry 22:58  
How’d it go?_

Liam only saw Harry’s message because he had rolled around to check the time on his phone, slightly amused because after their phone conversation, he hadn’t told Harry what he was planning on doing, hadn’t decided yet whether he’d go to Niall’s work or not. Apparently he was a lot easier at being read than he had thought.

_To Harry 23:16  
We talked & we’re good. Thank you again!_

He didn’t wanna go into details because this was Niall’s best friend and not his, but obviously Liam appreciated Harry’s help, and he was sure so did Niall because otherwise they might have never gotten to sort all of this out because of how afraid Niall had been to open up to Liam. Obviously that pained the older man, to think that Niall hadn’t thought he could talk to him, but… it was what it was, and thankfully they were over it now. And hopefully now Niall knew that Liam would always be there for him. 

_Harry 23:17  
Youre welcome, glad you sorted it out. You two coming to Louis’ on Friday?_

Right, Louis was doing some get together or something, Liam had only been half listening, and obviously he had not yet invited Niall like his friend had told him to, so like… Liam couldn’t really give an answer, he simply texted Harry that they were still thinking about it before telling him goodnight. He kinda had more important things to do right now than texting Harry, for example staring at Niall all night long and trying to come up with ways to hel him. 

\--------------------

“Hi… “ Niall was a little confused upon waking up, but also really tired still when he felt Liam’s lips against his cheek, and then covering his own, needing a moment to realize that he was really here, that it hadn’t just been a damn good dream. 

“Hi… “ Liam whispered back, against the younger’s skin, before continuing to cover his face in more kisses until Niall couldn’t help but laugh a bit sleepily, holding onto Liam so he wouldn’t move away. “Sorry for waking you, I didn’t know when you usually get up for work… “

“Whenever… I’ve only been there like 4 times, so… “ They had talked about when they’d have to work today and Niall had also texted his mother to let her know that he was at a ‘friend’s’ house, but had received no reply of course. “When do you start again?”

“At 9, so I can drive you.” Sounded like a really good idea to Niall, and it only got better when Liam pressed their lips back together, all soft and warm and god, Niall wanted to stay in this bed until the end of time. “Only if you want of course… “

“There’s nothing I’d want more.” Niall reassured him, having to yawn right after though and Liam laughed as he ran his fingers through the younger’s hair, giving him a million goosebumps. 

“Not even breakfast?” Liam joked, and Niall had to admit that that sounded pretty damn good right now. 

It took him some time to actually manage to get out of bed, and he felt a little sad about having to decline Liam’s offer of borrowing clothes from him because he had an outfit for work anyways that he had to wear. Liam had so much more options for breakfast than Niall had ever thought was possible, most of it healthy stuff, but that obviously did not surprise him in any way. He tried his best to help, but Liam insisted on Niall just sitting down, so he was forced to give in at some point. 

Typical, but it also made Niall’s heart grow warmer.

“What are you doing after work today?” When Liam asked, he had still not sat down with Niall, and he also still hadn’t put on a shirt, so needless to say, Niall had already forgotten about that glass of orange juice in front of him.

“Nothing. You?” It was kind of a reflex to ask that question, and Niall didn’t even notice what he had said until Liam turned around with a pulled up eyebrow.

“I mean, that is definitely an option.” He told the younger man and Niall felt his cheeks grow hotter but he still rolled his eyes, pretending to be annoyed. 

“You know what I meant.” Of course he did, but the prospect of making it into reality… pretty damn good. 

“Well, I’ve got no plans either.” Good. “So what do you want for dinner?”

Maybe this was going a bit quick, a bit more domestic already than Niall would have thought, but considering the fact that they had spent 24/7 around each other at the camp and just how right it felt to be here and with Liam again, he genuinely didn’t care. It all came so natural now that they had sorted things out, now that Niall had lifted himself of the burden of having to keep all these secrets and worry about his lies being uncovered. 

They discussed the dinner question for a bit because Niall felt bad, but Liam convinced him in the end that it really was no trouble at all, that he was making dinner for himself every night anyways. So how was Niall going to say no to that?

“So Louis is having like… some party or whatever on Friday.” Liam started upon sitting down as well, at the head of the table so they could be closer. “But I don’t think he invited anyone besides us. And maybe someone else, Zayn I think.”

“Harry already told me about it… like, before last night. He, uh, he said I needed to go so that you and me could finally sort things out.” No idea why but it still made Niall blush now talking and thinking about it, it’s not that he was embarrassed about his life and family situation, but it also wasn’t exactly a morning topic. “So, uh… I kinda already said no to avoid you.”

“I’m sure Louis will allow you to take it back. Unless you really don’t wanna go.” Liam seemed more amused than anything else, but he covered Niall’s hand with his own in the most comforting way. 

“No, I kinda do, like… maybe it would be good if, you know, if- if me and you, like, go together.” Although Harry already knew about them, because Niall might have had a breakdown or two during the last week where he had needed someone to talk to. So he also really had not been surprised that Harry had told Liam where he worked and whatever else in an attempt to help Niall. Well, and he had succeeded. “Although… I think everyone already knows.”

“I think Louis thinks we’re just friends still, so that’d be fun.” Liam laughed, the thought apparently amusing him and it made Niall think of all of Louis’ comments when they had still been at the camp, how obvious they had been about absolutely everything. In hindsight, Niall really felt like they had both been acting a bit like idiots. “But you can still change your mind until then.”

“I won’t, I don’t have anything else to do anyways.” It was true, Niall spent all his time at work and then when he came home he spent it thinking about Liam, so hopefully he could switch that out now to actually being _with_ Liam.

“Except me.” Liam joked, and then starting to laugh quite a bit when Niall let out the biggest sigh, not truly annoyed of course because at the same time he was feeling so giddy and happy inside that he could’ve burst. 

\-------------------

Niall ended up sleeping at Liam’s place every night until Friday, and he did go home in between once to talk to his mother, but because of her work schedule and everything, she wasn’t really questioning where Niall went anyways. Plus, they weren’t exactly that close, probably never would be, and Niall did wanna help her, he just didn’t know how and he was a little more busy with himself since talking things out with Liam.

“Wait, wait.” Louis seemed completely taken aback the very moment he saw Liam kissing Niall on the lips out of nowhere, it hadn’t even been planned or anything and they had only gotten here like 5 minutes ago as well. “What is going on?”

“What do you think?” Liam seemed highly amused by his friend’s reaction, and Niall kinda felt like he had planned on doing this just to shock Louis. Because he was the only one who was shocked anyways.

“I thought- what?! Why is no one surprised except me?” It was true, Harry had already known of course, and then Zayn seemed very unimpressed as well despite the fact that neither Niall nor Liam had told him anything. So that left only Louis to freak out because he hadn’t invited anybody else.

“I mean, it was kinda obvious in the last two weeks of camp.” Zayn threw in, shrugging when Louis just looked at him in confusion. “So you made all these jokes about them but didn’t think they were actually together?”

“I knew they liked each other, I just- Haz, you knew?” Now Louis seemed hurt, but his boyfriend just laughed, throwing an arm around his shoulders.

“Niall told me a few days ago, I figured once they wanted anybody else to know they should do it themselves. And you did tease them a lot, so you can’t blame them for not immediately running to tell you.” True, but Louis still seemed a bit upset while all Niall could think about was that he could now finally sit closer to Liam without having to worry. 

“I was just trying to help them get together. So I’m actually partly taking credit for this, without me you wouldn’t even know each other.” Also true, and Niall WAS thankful for how things had turned out even though he had wished to go home immediately after meeting Liam. Kinda really made him feel as if maybe certain things in life were actually meant to be. 

“Thank you so much, Lou.” Liam rolled his eyes while saying it, and Niall just laughed when he saw the other man’s face. It kinda felt nice to have all of them back together, in a completely different setting and with everything worked out. Well, not everything, but at least the most important things. “Sorry I didn’t tell you, I knew you’d just get on our nerves even more if I did.”

“Wow, thanks. You know you’re at my place, right?” Which was actually a really nice place Niall had to admit, although he liked Liam’s better, for obvious reasons. It just made him feel slightly stupid for being only a little bit younger than them and still live at home, but everyone’s situation was different, as Liam had put it when Niall had brought it up last night. 

Liam and Louis kept bickering back and forth for a bit, and then Louis tried to ask some really stupid questions about their relationship just to tease them before Harry switched the topic for everyone’s sake. Niall was really glad that no one talked about jobs or uni or family, and he knew that Harry must’ve said something to Louis prior to this get together, but he didn’t really mind it. As long as he didn’t have to discuss it now with everyone here it was all good.

“You’re all coming back next summer, right? And Harry?” Liam asked at some point, squeezing Niall a bit who had ended up leaning his head on the other’s shoulder because it had been a long week. 

“Maybe, I don’t know yet what things are gonna be like in a year.” Zayn didn’t seem so sure, and neither did anybody else really. 

“I might, if I don’t find anything else.” Harry joked although Niall knew that he was kinda being serious. “Don’t know if I’d manage to do this for 6 weeks though, it seemed quite exhausting just for one.”

“Maybe you gotta give my position to your boyfriend, I don’t know if I’ve got time either.” Louis said it to tease them, but it actually made Niall feel a bit hot, to have someone else use that word because they had never used it with each other.

“What position?” Liam laughed, but he quickly stopped again when Louis rolled his eyes. “Well, it’s fine if you don’t wanna come, I’d understand. I just gotta make sure to look for people sooner this time.”

“I’ll come.” Niall promised quickly, even though they also couldn’t know what things would be like a year from now, but he liked to be optimistic about it. And he definitely wouldn’t be able to not see Liam for SIX bloody weeks.

“Thanks, love.” The older man smiled, the soft smile he reserved for Niall only, making him blush like crazy when he pressed a kiss to his temple in front of everyone. “You also still gotta come on a hiking tour with me before it gets too cold.”

“I w-“

“Hah, good luck with that, Liam once made me go hiking with him for his birthday and we almost got lost in the fucking mountains.” Louis interrupted Niall, scaring the younger man just a little tiny bit. “And there was a bear-“

“It wasn’t a bear, and we also didn’t get lost, I always knew where we were going. Also, that was like 7 years ago, I had a lot less experience and I wasn’t doing tours. You never went again after that.” Didn’t sound so promising, but god knew Niall would have done anything for Liam, and he had also quite enjoyed their morning jogs that had then turned into walks, so he was pretty sure he’d enjoy hiking with Liam also. 

“Take a guess why.” Louis gave back before getting up, saying something about snacks he had left in the kitchen, but he looked at Niall again before walking off. “It _was_ a bear.”

“It wasn’t a bear.” Liam sighed, wrapping his second arm around Niall also and the younger boy fully let himself fall into him, holding back a laugh. “Don’t worry, we wouldn’t do something super difficult. And there are no bears there.”

“It’s fine, I trust you. I’m sure it’ll be fun.” Niall wasn’t so sure about going with a whole group, but if Liam really wanted him to then of course he’d come. 

“You’ll just get lost together and attacked by the same bear, how romantic!” Louis half yelled from the kitchen and the others just laughed, not really bothered by it because it was just jokes anyways. 

Niall had never had like, a whole group of friends, and he certainly hadn’t been in a relationship like the one he had with Liam before, so he was enjoying himself a lot more that evening than he thought he would have. He did stay at Liam’s again after that because the older man just drove them there and then only seemed to realize he had never asked Niall if he wanted to stay when they had already taken off their shoes. 

As if he’d ever have to ask that.

\---------------

It took a while until they found a day to actually go hiking together, because Niall did work on some Saturdays as well, so when they did finally both have the time, it had already gotten quite cold outside because it was the end of October by then.

Niall spent most nights at Liam’s place now, he had somewhat gotten settled into work, but it didn’t matter so much to him anymore because at least his private life was working out perfectly just for once and he did have plans to go back to uni and pursue other goals, he would just have to be patient. And he had Liam, who was like, his biggest motivator for anything, and Niall knew he could rely on him, that he’d never leave him alone, so that took a lot of pressure off of him.

“Where is everyone else?” Niall was a little confused when they got out of the car on some pretty empty parking lot, having expected at least someone from Liam’s hiking tours to join them because that’s what the other man had told him.

“We’re the only ones.” Liam told him, a smile on his face when Niall looked at him over the car, confused for a second. “I wanted it to be just us. I hope that’s okay.”

“Yeah, of course, I- actually… I was kinda hoping we’d be alone anyways.” Niall admitted, now feeling a lot more excited about this hike already. Not like he wasn’t alone with Liam every day and half lived at his place already, he just couldn’t get enough. “Or did you just do it because everyone else is so much more experienced than me?”

“A little bit.” Liam joked, but he immediately came to hug the younger man when he pretended to pout, kissing the side of his head. “I’m joking, I’m joking. I wanted it to be just you and me, I thought it’d be a lot more fun and also… I might have a surprise for you.”

“What surprise?” Niall instantly wanted to know, but the other man just laughed softly, pulling away to press a kiss to Niall’s lips. 

“I can’t tell you yet, but I think you’ll like it. And don’t look at me like that or I’ll feel bad and tell you and then it’ll ruin everything and I really thought it through.” God damn it.

“Alright, I’ll try my best…. but I’m not making any promises yet.” Especially because Niall had no idea how long they’d be hiking for either. 

“I’ll take that.” Liam laughed before opening the trunk of his car so they could get out their backpacks. They hadn’t packed a lot, and Liam had taken things out of Niall’s bag and put it in his own, probably thinking Niall hadn’t noticed but he had just not said anything about it, his heart having grown warm thinking about it though.

It wasn’t too cold today, there was barely any wind and the sun was out, but Niall was a bit afraid that that would change during the day, so he was glad that he had decided to bring so many extra clothes. Even though that meant he’d have to carry them all.

The way Liam had chosen for them seemed to be a popular one because it started off rather easy, but they didn’t see any other people for a while, probably because it was almost November and not everyone had a hiking tour guide with them like Niall did. It was Halloween today, so Louis had been a bit upset about them not coming to his party, while Niall had secretly been a little bit glad.

Louis definitely threw way too many parties, something Niall had come to realize pretty quickly ever since the 5 of them hung out regularly, and going there when Liam was with him was fine, but he could have definitely not seen him going had him and Louis gotten along before the camp had happened.

“How’s your mom doing?” Liam asked a couple minutes into walking. Niall had seen her today because he had had to get something from home for the hike. 

“Better, I think. She was in a good mood, she said she’s meeting up with a friend or something.” She had been getting better the last couple of weeks, after Liam had one day suddenly given Niall the phone number of some guy he had studied with, who had gone into clinical psychology after uni unlike Liam. It had taken some convincing from Niall’s side, and a few fights, but eventually he had gotten his mother to go, and talking to somebody who was a professional seemed to really help her. “I hope she doesn’t stop going to see that guy the moment she feels better.”

“I hope so too. But it was a good first step either ways.” Liam had never met Niall’s mother, because Niall knew that introducing him as just a friend would’ve been hard to pull off, and introducing him as his boyfriend was something that would only freak her out at this stage. And they were only just now starting to get along slightly better. “I also- I still feel like maybe you should-“

“I’m not like my mom, I don’t just keep it all in.” Well, Niall HAD kept things in for quite some time, and he was pretty sure he couldn’t even remember half the things that had happened in his childhood and he also didn’t feel traumatized by any of it. Although it had surely affected him in some ways. “And I talk to you all the time and you have a master’s degree in psychology, so.”

“I work in a different field though, and it’s also different because we’re dating. But I don’t wanna talk you into it, I’m just suggesting it, in case you ever feel like maybe you’d need it, you know.” He was so sweet, and always so concerned about Niall’s well-being and his health, mental and physical, and it honestly made Niall just wanna stop walking already and snog the living hell out of Liam. 

He settled for just holding his hand in the end. “Thank you. But I’m feeling good, a lot better than I did before the summer. My brother would probably need therapy a lot more than me.”

“If I ever see your brother I can’t guarantee for anything.” Right, not the best topic to bring up. Niall hadn’t actually seen or talked to his brother since that day he had come home from camp, so that was a good thing. Plus, he knew that if his brother ever hurt him again, Liam would absolutely lose it on him. 

“He never comes home anyways, I doubt you’ll ever have to see him.” Same as Niall’s dad, but that was a whole different story. “I still wanna introduce you to my mom, but… we should probably wait a bit longer.”

“Don’t stress out about it, okay?” He was though, a little bit, because Niall had met Liam’s entire family by now and they were all lovely people and really welcoming and Niall wished it could’ve been the same the other way around. They both knew that it wouldn’t though. 

“I’m trying.” Niall told the older man, squeezing his hand a bit before deciding to switch the topic because he didn’t want their hike to be ruined. Not like they didn’t have half a day ahead of them still. “So… how long are we gonna be walking uphill for?”

“Not that long, I promise. We can take a break whenever you want, okay?” Liam looked amused, but he was still being really sweet about it and Niall felt himself relax a bit. 

“Okay. Maybe we should start going on jogs again, I feel like any kind of muscle I’ve built during camp has disappeared and taken another muscle with it.” Seriously though, but Niall probably wouldn’t have found the motivation to go jogging before work every morning anyways so there was that. 

“Just tell me when and we can go, I wouldn’t say no.” Great. “We can also start with walks though.”

“We could. But like, the scenery at home won’t measure up, so sadly… “ Niall pretended to sigh and Liam laughed, momentarily letting go of Niall’s hand because it was a bit difficult to do so while the path was getting smaller. 

“Damn it. And you wanted to go so badly, huh?” Liam joked and Niall playfully pretended to hit him with his elbow but didn’t actually because he didn’t wanna trip Liam on accident. “You’re so cute.”

“Because the only kind of activity I agree to do with you is mediating once a while?” The comment still made Niall’s cheeks go red, but they had probably already been red from the cold though so whatever.

“That too. But you’re just cute in general. And I really appreciate you going on a hike with me because I know deep down you really wanted us to stay home instead.” He just knew Niall too well. “But it’ll be worth it, I promise.”

“Don’t mention the surprise again please, it just makes me more curious.” And Niall was already damn fucking curious. 

“Okay, okay. Maybe it’s a shit surprise, who knows? Maybe you will hate it. Maybe-“

“Liiiaammm, stop.” Niall whined, kinda getting out of breath now, after only 20 or so minutes so that was a great start.

“Sorry, baby. I’m already quiet. Do you want some water?” He must’ve noticed Niall’s breathing getting heavier, but the younger man declined for now, a little afraid of drinking too much and then having to pee in the bushes while freezing his ass off.

It was a long hike, longer than Niall had thought, but he should’ve already figured it out considering how early they had started it. Liam knew a whole ton about the place, kept pointing out things to Niall and Niall didn’t much care for plants or birds, but he really enjoyed listening to Liam talking about all of it, with so much joy and passion. 

They were also forced to take quite a few breaks because of Niall, and each time got a little harder to get up again. Liam had packed food for them though, and snacks and whatnot, and he held Niall’s hand when it got colder, so all of that made it more bearable.

At some point though, Niall felt like he just had to ask the question that had been on his mind for a while now. “Sooo… are we like, gonna end up back by the car? Because nothing here seems familiar yet. Or… or do we have to turn around at some point?”

“You really don’t wanna walk anymore, huh?” Liam was smirking and Niall felt caught, but at the same time, they had probably been walking for 5 hours or something. At least that’s what it felt like. 

“I don’t mind, uh, just wondering.” Niall lied, clearing his throat a bit. He didn’t at all mind being outside with only Liam, talking about everything that came to their minds, but he also wouldn’t have minded sitting… or lying down. 

“Actually, we’re almost there.” Wait, how?

“By the car?” Niall asked, a little hopeful, but Liam shook his head, winking at the younger man who just groaned a bit. That damn surprise.

They walked for a bit longer, also uphill, for like, 20 minutes, which felt like another hour to Niall, but Liam kept distracting him by talking and offering more snacks, and when he told Niall to stop walking, it almost came a bit out of nowhere.

“Is there a bear?” Niall joked, and Liam rolled his eyes, telling Niall to close his though before helping him to walk so he wouldn’t fall. “I swear, Li, if the surprise is you suddenly being naked then I won’t mind it, I just wish we’d waited until we were back home.”

“Sometimes I’d really like to know what’s going on inside your head- careful, step.” The older man sounded amused though, and Niall felt himself getting a bit impatient until they finally stopped again. “Okay, open your eyes.”

“Wh- oh.” It certainly was not what Niall had expected, a small cabin in the woods, and he didn’t really know what this meant at first, so he kinda forgot to be surprised before Liam explained.

“It belongs to a friend of mine who also does hiking tours, he gave me the keys for the night.” Okay, that was… a lot better than Niall had thought. “And the parking lot is like half an hour away from here, so if you’d rather go home and-“

“No, no, I really don’t. Wow. That’s so cool, can we go inside?” Niall was suddenly really excited over it, like, getting to be alone with Liam for the entire night, but also because the cabin looked rather cool, and it felt like an adventure sort of.

“Sure, it’s getting cold anyways.” Liam seemed quite happy with Niall’s reaction and he had to look for the key for a bit before letting them both inside. 

It wasn’t big or anything, but Liam’s friend must’ve put some food in here for them, and it was clean and really nice and suddenly, Niall was really glad that they had gone on this hike. “This is a way better surprise than I would’ve thought, thank you, Li.”

“Better than me getting naked in the middle of the forest?” Liam joked, but he was smiling wide when Niall came to hug him tightly after kissing him briefly. “I’m glad you’re this excited, love. I was a bit afraid you’d rather go home.”

“Definitely not, this is so much better. Now I know why you didn’t wanna go on a Sunday.” To be fair, they would’ve probably also been too tired on Monday, but this made much more sense.

It kinda had a camp feeling to it, except they had an entire cabin with a kitchen and everything, and a real double bed instead of twin beds, but Niall almost got a bit nostalgic even though the camp wasn’t even that long in the past.

They made food together and by the time they were eating, it had already gotten dark outside. Niall made sure to have Liam check the lock three times before he felt safe and allowed the older man to turn off the lights, leaving only the fire place they had lit for them to see anything at all. There was no sound at all, it was just the two of them sharing a blanket and cuddling and Niall never wanted to go back home.

\-------------------------

“… I never thought I’d do this.” Niall was still out of breath, his body felt hot and sticky underneath Liam’s and next to the fire place, but he felt completely blissed out at the same time, the older man having rocked into him until they both hadn’t been able to take it any longer. Niall’s back did hurt from only having a blanket underneath him, but none of that mattered. “Like in some movie.”

“It was good though, right?” Liam asked for reassurance, brushing Niall’s damp hair out of his forehead before kissing the exposed skin, and then continuing to pepper the rest of his face with kisses also, his breath still feeling shivery.

“Really good… “ The younger man confirmed, keeping his eyes closed still as he let Liam kiss him and caress his skin, his arms locked tightly around the older’s neck. “Also not the first time we’ve done it in the woods, but… “

“Definitely the best one though.” The older man had to laugh, pressing his lips and nose against Niall’s cheek and Niall felt himself smiling, not remembering a day where he had felt this extremely happy. It shouldn’t have even been possible. “I hope you can still move, my knees are kinda killing me.”

“Hmm… I’m okay. Can we stay like this for a bit longer though?” Niall really didn’t wanna get up just yet, and Liam didn’t make any attempts to, he just kissed Niall some more, caressing his face and rubbing their noses together to make him laugh. 

They hadn’t been together for that long, but if Niall thought about it then it had been over two months and he didn’t actually know what he had been thinking, if anything at all, but he just blurted out with it anyways.

“I love you.” Niall immediately regretted having said it out loud even though it was true and something he had been thinking about a lot, it had just seemed like the right moment and he had been emotional and suddenly he was freaking out and-

“I love you too, Nialler.” Liam answered almost immediately, surprising Niall but at the same time almost making him want to laugh with relief. “Don’t freak out.”

“’m not freaking out… I was just really close.” He admitted, the smile on his face feeling kinda permanent now though. “This is… crazy. Oh my god. I really love you.”

“I really love you too.” Liam laughed, obviously amused by Niall’s little outbreak, and he was still laughing when he leaned down to kiss the younger boy again, and Niall kinda felt like crying from happiness, but he didn’t, because he didn’t wanna ruin the moment. He just wanted to live in it forever.

In the end, they were both kinda hurting when they finally decided to go to bed instead, and Niall still felt the same he had right after saying it, so he made sure to tell Liam a few more times, the answer never failing to fill his stomach with butterflies. Maybe he really had to thank Louis for all of this, for getting him this job at the camp, but then again, maybe it had all been meant to turn out this way, because it surely felt like they had been made for just each other.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> sooo here it is, the final part & i definitely owe you guys an apology or 20. i am still working my summer job (a few more days), and then it was my birthday and then i was stressing out over uni that hasnt even started for me and whatnot and it was all crazy, and im sorry. i think i definitely pushed the limits now taking this long for what was supposed to be a oneshot, rip.
> 
> i hope you liked it, i will definitely be back very soon (now that i actually have time again), and i swear i will never update this infrequently again, it was just a really weird summer that aged me like 10 years mentally.
> 
> hope you guys are doing well & id love to read your thoughts as always, thank you for being patient and im sorry <3


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